Tales of Halo
by Psycho Grant
Summary: The adventure to Tethe'alla for Max and the others just got kinda harder. A HaloTOS crossover. SheenaxOC. no master cheif sorry. plus this is my first fanfic. Please R
1. Tales of Halo CHs 1to4

Tales of Halo

(Tales of Symphonia/Halo series crossover)

Authors note:

This is my first Fan Crossover fiction. I do not own any of the TOS and Halo

Series characters, places, ideas, etc…. I just did this for fun. If I accidentally

Copied events or character sayings from any fanfics, I beg for your mercy!

CH.1

Mission Abort

_Battle Zone: Death valley, CA, USA_

_Time: 6:31 am_

_Mission: capture or destroy Covenant base_

"Two minutes till touch down marines, get ready!" the voice over the loud speakers said.

Twenty-three of the best UNSC marines stood up from theirs seats and prayed, vomited from nervousness, and/or remand silent. Among the marines was LT. Max Demore.

Character Info

Name: Max DemoreAge: 21Sex: maleRank: LT

Class: MedicHair color: BlackHeight: 6'

Weight: 165 lbsBorn: August 14, 2535Death: ---Nationality: US

Max was in the front of the group ready as always, waiting to be the first one out. He felt the Pelican drop ship touch down. There were sounds of plasma hitting metal, and yelling happening outside the ship. The doors on the back opened and there were about 3 Elites standing in front of Max armed with carbines and plasma rifles and 7 Grunts with plasma pistols.

"We, have a problem here!" the marine to Max's left yelled.

"Use you Flash Bang Grenades!" SGT. Wong Barked making him and four other marines thrown flash bang grenades in front of their enemies immediately blinding them. After the group eliminated the Elites and Grunts, they got out and they examined the area for any more enemy threats.

One of the marines realized something was very wrong. More marines realized it too.

"Where's the base? And why is the air so wavy?" said one marine, "hey! I think there's something he-" before the marine could finish, he was decapitated by a camo elite with its energy sword.

"It's a trap! Shoot the fuckers!" marines readied themselves for a big fight.

Max and another medic ran to an injured marine on the ground with a burning leg from a stray ball of plasma. Looking around the battlefield, Max spotted a cave of some sort then at the battle that's going around him.

"Medical Private Carl! Take this marine over to that cave over there and-" Then he was interrupted by a beam of purple light hitting the medic next to him in the skull killing him instantly. Max looked around to see where that light came from. On the cliff edge, he spotted a figure of a Jackal with a Covenant sniper rifle.

Quickly without hesitation, Max picked up his battle rifle off the ground and shot his target. He looked back at the cave to find it still standing. He slumped the injured marine over his back letting the blood stream down onto him.

He slowly made progress to the cave walking over bodies of both sides that were fighting right now.

After hours of fighting, Max and eleven other marines were trying to hold out in the small cave waiting for reinforcements to come, but none came. A squadron of Longsword fighters dropped bombs like crazy on Death Valley.

_Mean while on _

_one of the three dozen_

_orbital MAC Guns_

"Admiral, the mission was aborted three hours ago when our men walked into a trap set up by the covenant. We haven't extracted our men yet sir, so we might have to send in a tank almada or bomb the fuck out of the enemy or-" the officer was interrupted when his phone started to ring.

"Please wait a second sir." The officer talked for a good three minutes. The admiral did not like the situation one bit while a battle was raging on. The officer put away his phone then turned to the Admiral.

"Sir, that was the bridge, the enemy was defeated and the Pelicans have extracted the remaining marines," the officer said with a glad tone.

"What are the casualties? How bad is it?"

"Five out of fifty marines survived, the rest are KIA. Do you need to know anything else sir?"

"No, that ok, that's all I needed to know, you are dismissed" after the officer walked off, the admiral took this time to talk to himself, "may the unlucky ones that died to day go with god…" then he said quietly walked down the hall towards the Bridge.

CH.2

Fighting Fire with Fire 

_At the medial center on _

_the orbital MAC gun_

Max was waiting to get his medical supplies for any up coming missions. Max heard a group a marines near him talking about a covenant weapon that was captured somewhere in Germany. The scientists figured out that the weapon can work like a nuke, but it can vaporize ships within a hundred miles. Mixing the chemicals in the bomb with mercury, it won't just vaporize a fleet, it will teleport the fleet to Pluto, mars, or a different dimension.

"LT. Max Demore, your medical equipment is waiting at the desk now." The speakers said making Max jump a bit

'Finally! I thought this would take years to get it' thinking while getting his things, 'now I have to get the bloodstain off my uniform and-' red lights lit up the hallways stopping his thoughts. "All the personnel to battle stations." Max heard this and ran to his room to get his gun and uniform for the fight.

On the bridge 

"Where the hell did these basterds come from!" The admiral looked at the radar and saw about 35 Phantoms in formations that the UNSC did not know about.

"Don't know. They just popped up like fire flies."

"Sir! There's a strong energy source coming from one of the phantoms, same energy source as the new bomb we captured from the Covenant!"

"Admiral, what should we do?"

The admiral stood there thinking how to solve the situation. There was one answer he had, but it could be suicide for all of them.

"Have the fighters keep the enemies distance more than a hundred miles while we put mercury in our bomb and have all personnel get to the life boats now, the ones that are on the bridge now… brace your self. We're taking this fight somewhere else. No 'buts' do it."

In one of life boats ready to launch 

Max sat in the back of the lifeboat looking at his grandfather's pen examining the symbols. His grandfather never told him what the symbols mean.

A red light turned on meaning the life bout is ready to launch. 'Show time…' He thought put the pen away and focused his attention out the window to see an enormous space battle going on. Max had no idea what's happening

"Hay, pilot! What going on here? And why are we moving away from the battle?" a nervous marine said who was sitting near the front of the lifeboat.

"A group of Phantoms are attacking and one of them has their new bomb and the admiral is planning to use our bomb to take that battle to hell." The pilot responded

"How far are we now?"

"Seventy-eight miles away, if we make it more than a hundred miles, than we're lucky."

"I don't think we're lucky anymore, because I think it just ran out." said Max as a bright light blacked out the crew.

'Shit' he thought it was the end…or was it the beginning…

Ch.3

Prison Break

Max awoke from the sounds of voices coming near by. He got up from the cot and noticed he was in a cell, a prison cell. Max was confused, he was in the back seat of a lifeboat and now he was in a prison cell. 'Where am I?' He thought trying to reach out to the switch and open the cells. But was interrupted by the guards conversation.

"If I have to say it, I feel sorry for that Lloyd kid."

"Yeah, he can't possibly escape execution."

Then out of nowhere, a voice came out of the cell next to Max's. "Execution? What the hell!"

"Hey, shifts up" a man walked into the room interrupted their conversation.

"Ok"

"Alright" the two guards walked out of the room leaving one guard to do his work.

"Hay, kid, where the hell am I?" Max said, "and how the hell did I get here?"

"I don't know. What did you do to get in there?"

"Nothing! What the fuck! Hay, guard where the hell are we?"

Both Max and the kid looked towards the guard and said nothing else.

"What do you mean, where are you? You two are in the Desian base in Triet desert. Happy? Now shut the hell up and you might survive longer!"

"Listen!" Max barked out of his cell, "I'm Medical lieutenant Max Demore, and I have the right to speak with the man in charge here! Now get me out of this fucking cell!

"I don't care who you are. You're about to go through interrogation tomorrow. Now shut the hell up!"

The boy in the cell next to Max had an idea, "I might know how to get out of these cells, but I don't think it will work."

"Give it a shot kid. If it doesn't work, we're both screwed."

"What's your name?"

"LT. Max Demore. Call me Max, You?"

"Lloyd Irving."

"Nice to meet you Lloyd, now let's stop the chit-chat and start this little plan of yours."

A few minutes later a little ball of fire shot out from Lloyds cell and hit the guard making him run out of the room with his hair on fire. Max's eyes went wide on what he just saw.

"What the fuck did you do?"

"I used the sorcerers ring to shoot fire balls."

"Ok… I might not know what that is but let's get the hell out of here"

The two opened their cells and ran to a room with a create holding their equipment. Max was carrying his medical supplies, battle rifle, M6C (pistol), four grenades, helmet with head set radio, and canteen and Lloyd took out his two twin swords.

Lloyd looked at him with confusion and said with a worried voice, "Are you going to wack them over the head with a club and a hammer and throw rocks at them? That the most craziest thing that I'm going to see."

"These aren't clubs, these two weapons are called guns and these are grenades, you got that?"

"Yeah, yeah, can we get going?"

Max and Lloyd ran down corridors through corridors. When they turned one corner, they came face to face with armed Desians.

"Uh oh…" the said in a unison.

"What the? Jail Break!

Max took out two grenades and tossed them in front of desians feet. They laughed at Max for a split second, and two explosions went off. As the smoke cleared, there were seven corpses of fallen enemies lying dead on the ground.

"Enemy down. Let's move on."

"Max, that… was awesome."

"Save it, more contact up ahead."

"Let's go though that door and lose them."

"Good idea… wait, do you know where we're going?"

"No idea, but I'd rather risk taking the nearest mystery door before getting captured again or killed."

"Good point."

Both Max and Lloyd quickly opened the door and ran into a big room that looked very formal.

"Whoa, that was close" Lloyd said out of breath. "Tell me about, drink some of this." Max started to hand of the canteen full of water till…

"And just who the hell are you two?"

Max and Lloyd spun around and readied themselves. A man in strange clothing and long blue hair stood before them. The man held out his hand and a small ball of electricity formed up. Lloyd stepped forward putting on a look that showed that he wasn't worried.

"Give me your name and I'll give you mine"

"I don't need to tell to the likes of you."

"Well what do you know, I don't think I need to introduce myself to a moron who knows how pathetic he is."

"Why you little-!" the man was ready to blow Lloyd into oblivion till he saw a jewel on the back of his hand. The man stopped his attack, "an exsphare, your… Lloyd?"

"And if I am?"

"Hm… I see the resemblance."

A door opened behind max and three men entered the room. One of them looked buffed and was carrying a curved sword.

"Sir, we have reported that the chosen's group has entered the facility."

Lloyd was in shock when remembered the man.

"You're the desians that attacked Iselia!"

"So this is Lloyd. Now this is amusing."

"Whao! Whao! Whao! Back this up! What the hell are all you people talking about?

"Botta, our plans will fail if he sees me!"

"What of the chosen?"

"I'll leave that to you." The strange man turned towards Lloyd and Max and gave them a warning, "Lloyd, next time we meet, your mine. The same goes with you" The man pointed at Max before he left through another door.

The three men moved in on Lloyd and Max, but Max pulled out his M6C and easily shot two of the men in the head and shot the big curved sword out of the hands of his enemy. The man panicked, "I underestimated… your abilities," and left the room.

A door opened and Max and Lloyd got ready to fight on what's to come. Instead, a girl with blond hair came running into the room being followed by three others.

The girl ran to Lloyd and gave him a big hug, "Lloyd! Are you ok? Are you hurt?"

"Friends of yours Lloyd?" Max turn towards him lowering his gun.

"Yep. Hay guys. This is Max, he helped me out on getting this far in our escape."

A man walked into the room with strange brown hair and broke the conversation, "Save the chit-chat for later and let's get going."

Max picked up the sword and turned around, "I have to agree with this guy Lloyd, let's go…"

_Later at the inn…_

"Lloyd, now that we're out of harms way. Can you and your friends tell me what the hells going on around here and tell me where I am?" Max asked like he was ready to shoot some one with one of his guns, but he knew what would happen if he did. "Well Max, let's start with introductions first, Ok? Ok, this is my friend Colette." A blond hair girl stood up in a white and blue outfit saying hello and sat back down.

Max was introduced to the others of the group. Kratos, Raine, and Genis. Max then told about where he came from. Some part of the group felt interested, including Raine most of all. One by one they returned to their rooms to sleep, except for Max, Lloyd, and Kratos. They stayed up late for their own reason and for making and repairing stuff.

CH.4

Late Night Surprise

Authors note: If you know the characters and what they look like from TOS, than you will get the story line, and I might add a few places that weren't in the game.

It was late at night in the inn, Max was trying to get a line into the UNSC channel, but all he got was static. He decided to put it on SOS for now and call it a night. Max walked to a little bar near the inn.

"Why won't the fucking radio work! I turned it to all the UNSC channels and no one is on it. Maybe I should switch it to the civilian channel."

When Max returned, the little red light on his radio started to blink. 'No fucking way' thought Max as he ran over to the radio.

"Is anyone there please respond, this is Orbital MAC gun 25, over."

"This is LT. Max Demore, who is this?"

"CPT. Alexander LT. Where are you and what's the situation?"

"I'm in a small town somewhere in a desert called Triet. And I met a group that has someone that's the chosen of regeneration. Anything else sir?"

"Yes, all Pelicans and Longsword fighters are extremely damaged. So you won't be extracted in 15 days. You're on your own soldier, just so you know, over and out."

"Copy that."

Max put the radio down on the table sat back in a chair with relief that he wasn't the only person from the UNSC on the bloody world. At the same time, Kratos walked into the room followed by Lloyd.

"Max, what are you doing up? You should be in bed." Kratos said as he put his equipment away.

"I was fixing my radio to see if anyone from the UNSC was out there."

Lloyd and Kratos looked at Max confused, 'Radio? UNSC? What's that?' they felt kind of dumb struck for the moment.

Max noticed what Lloyd and Kratos were thinking by the looks on their faces. "If you guys are wondering what those are. A radio is a tool that can let you talk to other people that have these things to when they're far away and the UNSC stands for United Nations Space Corps. It's an army that keeps the peace, and I'm part of it."

"Oooookkaaayyy…" both Lloyd and Kratos said in a unison.

"Anyway, I'm going to bed you guys, night." Then Max laid back in his own bed, and closed his eyes.


	2. tales of Halo CHs 5to8

Ch. 5

Lifeboat 101

Max was the first to rise in the morning, he thought about cooking breakfast for the party. He looked at the ingredients and sighed.

"Crap… things to make a sandwich… great. How do these people live in this world? Well, better go to the market and get some food,"

_15 minutes later…_

Max was back with all the recipes he needed. French Toast was on the menu this morning. He heard footsteps coming from Colette's room to the stairs. 'Colette must be up.' He thought

"Good morning Max! Wow! What's that smell?" She said while entering the room.

"I'm making French toast for breakfast. Are the others awake yet?"

"Genis and the Professor should be up… Ah! Here they come now!"

Genis and Raine came into the room following the joyful smell in the air and see who was cooking.

"Max! You never told us that you can co-" Raine said as she sat down at the table.

"No one even asked" Max quickly interrupted.

"Oh… can we start eating?"

"What? Yeah, chow down. Where's Lloyd and Kratos?"

"I'm behind you Max … (yawn!)"

Max turned around to find a half-awake and half-asleep looking mercenary.

"Holy shit Kratos! What were you doing last night when I was asleep?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I practiced my sword skills out on the roof."

"Ooookay… Where's Lloyd?"

Kratos pointed a finger at the door down across the lobby behind him.

"Still asleep, huh?"

He gave Max a nod and headed towards to table.

"I'll be right back."

The medic entered the room to find the young swordsman, Lloyd fallen out of bed still asleep. (A huge snot bubble coming out of his noise, **if **you know what I mean… ) He blew his emergency whistle into Lloyd's ears, which made him get up off the floor so fast that it was like watching Arnold's ass was on fire.

"Lloyd, you overslept. Hurry up, get some clothes on and get something to eat. I made French toast."

In a blink of an eye, the swordsman was ready with in 2 seconds.

"Oh… my… god! That was fast!"

The two were walking towards breakfast till they heard a faint explosion outside. Lloyd opened the window and looked out in surprise. "Max! What's that?" he pointed towards the smoke coming from behind a dune hill.

"Don't know… let's check it out."

At the crash site of lifeboat 101 

"It's a lifeboat! Come on you guys, help me!"

The chosen's group followed Max down the dune running towards the crash. After an hour of looking, there was no hope for the men aboard the lifeboat. The medic gathered the dog tags and put them in a bag. Colette, Genis, and Lloyd started to pray. He looked at them and sighed while staring at the ground and started to remember the sound of yelling and gunfire in his head of the past of horrible and sadist battles he has been in.

"Is there something wrong Max?" Kratos asked with a calm voice.

"It's just that… seeing this many dead bodies reminds me of the past battles I fought in…"

"Past battles?"

"Yeah, like I said before, the UNSC is a army that keeps the peace."

"What are you in this army you're in?"

"A Medic, its short for Medical Doctor or Field Doctor. Well… that's what I think it is. How about we talk about this later, ok?"

"Will you be traveling with us for a while?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I don't even know where to go from here."

"Well then, we must get moving."

"Where are we going?"

"The Seal of Fire."

Max then felt dumb struck, "The what and the what now?"

Ch. 6

Seal of Fire

"Whoa, man I'm beat." Lloyd said complaining for the twenty-seventh time.

"See! You're already worn out." Genis said in frustration.

"I'm sick of this desert."

"Hey guys! What's that up ahead?" Max said stop in front of the group.

"Be on your guards, there are enemy about." Kratos told the group and wield their weapons as two Fire Elements came out from behind some fallen pillars.

After the fight, the mercenary looked at the group and did not know what to say.

"This is going to be a nuisance…" Lloyd had no idea what is the problem.

"What is?"

Kratos was teaching Colette, Genis, and Lloyd some new techniques while Max

searched the area to make sure that there were no more monsters. He turned around after hearing the word "fantastic!" He saw Raine on the ground next to a

door that goes into the ground. Everyone was freaking out from the professors likes in ruins, accept for young elf. Who was burned out and embarrass. The medic kept searching. His left foot caught a hold of something and fell into the sand face first. He got up wiping the sand off face to see what he tripped over. There was a leg sticking out of the ground, not a human leg, but an Elite leg.

"No…hell no…" he murmured

He than removed the sand and was right. A red armored Elite lay there in the sand with three objects next to it. Two plasma grenades and an energy sword, 'where did this thing come from?' He thought while takes the enemies belongings including the energy sword.

"Max! Come on, we're going in to the temple! What are you doing?" The Professor said as she walked up behind him. Her eyes lit up as she saw the Elite on the ground dead.

"A new monster discovered! I shall call it-"

"Elite."

"What did you say?"

"It's called an Elite."

"(Sigh.) Oh well… we found the temples entrance, so can you tell me about it later" She said in disappointment that Max discovered and named it before she could do anything.

"I thought you were going to be interested in the lecture about it. Right, lets get going then."

The group went through the corridors of the temple encountering monsters Max has never seen before. Then they took a teleport devise to a big room that had strange technology on the walls. The room suddenly shook violently making everyone take out their weapons.

"What the?" Genis said as he pointed at the three monsters coming out of the seal.

The enemies they're go all out against are 2 Ktugachlings and a Ktugach. The plan was simple to the group. Lloyd and Colette took on one of the Ktugachling while Raine and Genis took on the other one leaving Kratos and Max to the Ktugach.

The battle began. The Mercenary went running into to attack, but the Ktugach knocked him down to the floor and started pounding with its paws.

"Kratos!" Max yelled and ran around to the rear of the guardian and jumped on to its back.

Taking out his M6C, He shot it several times in the back with blood spiting out at him, "Let's see if you like plasma!" He yelled then taking out a plasma grenade. He pushed the button and placed the grenade into the bullet hole he made with the twelve rounds of his pistol. Jumping off quickly, Max turned around and saw the beasts, spiked tale swung at him. He flew across the room hitting the metal wall at the same time the grenade went off killing the their objective.

Max felt a burst of pain spread through out his left shoulder, the spike that as on the guardians tale pierced his shoulder and blood started to leak from his wound. He was lying in a pool of his own blood till the battle was over. His vision blurred, till he saw nothing but darkness. Then feeling a warm hand touch his shoulder and hearing a familiar voice.

"_I won't let you die yet Max…"_

"Dad?"

CH. 7 

Day of Arrival

(A/N: This chapter is a short flashback on Max entering Sylvarant on the lifeboat.)

"What the? We're not dead."

"No shit Sherlock… how are you doing Max?"

"I'm fine sir."

"Good, pilot! Where are we!"

"I don't know! The computers can't identify where we're going to land! But it looks like we're going to land in a desert in the middle of a sandstorm!"

"Bring up the back up boosters to slow this thing down before we hit a building or something!"

"I can't! It won't respond! All you marines better buckle up, this could get ugly!"

Max and the Marines buckled themselves as tight as they could and got ready on what's to come for them.

"Five seconds till em- WHO THE HELL PUT THE THAT BUILDING THERE?"

Max and the other marines quickly looked out the window at the front end of the lifeboat and saw a round, metal covered building with a dome as a roof before hitting it. Then there was darkness again for Max.

_(End of Flashback/Dream)_

"_Do you know what happened son?" _The voice said.

"The bomb we used sent me and maybe the some of the UNSC fleet to a different planet. Right?"

"Not quite. But the answer to that will come soon enough. And you do have some clues that will help you, like that key you received years ago…"

"Wait! What key? What are you talking about?"

"Goodbye Max…"

"Wait, where are you going! Comeback!"

"AAAAHH!" Max woke up from his dream with a scream and was sweating like crazy. The chosen's group woke to see what's the problem with him. He then examined himself. The top part of his uniform was off leaving his bare chest showing some scars and his left and right arm having twice as many that he gotten from his previous battles.

"Max, what's the matter? What is it?" Lloyd said running over to Max.

"I…It's nothing I'm fine, where's my bag full of my medical stuff?" he turned his head left and right searching for it.

Professor Sage walked over to him with his medical bag, "I have it right here. I used some of your bandages to fix your wound on your shoulder." The medic saw his shoulder and lairs bandages on him.

"Thanks." Max reach in and pulled out bottle filled with pills saying, "Pain killers." After swallowing two pills, he took out another bottle saying, "Sleeping Pills." He then laid back down on the cool night grass. Minutes then pasted as he slept soundly.

CH.8

Assassin of Ossa Trail

After two days of traveling in the desert of Triet. The group reach's Ossa trail. Before entering, they decide to have lunch. It was Raine's turn to make the meal…. Which was bad… very bad.

"Max, if you taste her cooking, you're going to die." Genis whispered in to the soldiers ear.

"Well, in the military, we have to eat what the cook makes from the fridge. So I had worst."

"I can hear you two talking you know." Raine said throwing large chunks of rocks at them.

"Ah! Run Max! Run!" The young elf yelled as he covered his head and ran behind a bush while Max did the same, but he tripped on a rock and fell into a shallow river.

_One hour later_

Lloyd, Genis, and Kratos had the most greenish faces after lunch. They were so green, that they could be invisible in tall grass. "What's with the green faces you guys? It wasn't strong enough for ya?" the medic said putting a grin on his face.

"Shut up Max!" the three sick patients said in a quick unison.

Moments later, they were walking into wide, open area that was to quiet.

"I don't like it you guy, it's to quiet." The soldier said walking fast enough to be ahead of the group. Kratos and Raine had the same feeling as well. "I know what mean Max. If there is a trap here," the Professor said waving a finger in the air, "our most logical choice of action is to evade the trap or-"

"Stop!"

The Group stopped in surprise.

A woman in a purple outfit, a pink ribbon tied around her waist, and had black hair and had tided in the back like the character Mitsurugi has from the game Soul Caliber games, jumped down from a short cliff and stood there.

Colette looked at Lloyd, "is she a friend of yours Lloyd?"

"Non that I'm aware of."

The women stopped their conversation.

"Is the chosen of mana among you?"

"Oh, That's me." The chosen said waiting for what's in stored for her.

"Proper to die." Then the women ran towards her wielding two paper cards. Quickly, Max got in front of the assassin and pushed Colette back.

"Colette, get back, I'll take care of-"

When the klutzy chosen fell back, she accidentally hit a switch that was hidden in the grass. The ground underneath the assassin and medic opened up.

"Aw crap…" Max said before falling in with the assassin.

"Uh-oh…" the group said all at the same time.

Lloyd ran over to the hole to see if their friend was all right. "Max! Are you ok? Say something?" The group waited for a response but they only heard, "Holy… Crap…"

_In the Hole…_

'Shit! What a fall,' he thought, 'I think my wound came open.' And yet he was right. He felt pain spread in his shoulder again. Then blood started to appear on the shoulder part of his uniform as he tried to stand up. He then picked up his medical bag and his Battle Rifle.

'God where're those painkillers…there they…are?' before he could take out the bottle full of pills, he saw dust and tiny pieces of rock fall to the ground in front of him.

"What the hell?" he then looked up and found the assassin hanging onto roots dangling from the ceiling of the dark cave like room. Just then, the assassin let go of the roots and landed on top of him. He fell onto his back, plus dropping his guns at the same time.

Max was now lying on the ground with the assassin on top of him aiming a card at his throat.

"Get up and give me your weapons," she demanded. He slowly got up and gave the assassin his weapons except the Energy sword.

"Wait, what is that handle object you didn't give me?" she pointed at the Energy Sword hanging out of his pocket.

'Think Max, think. What should I call it?'

"A hand warming devise."

'A Hand Warming Devise! What the fuck am I thinking?'

"I don't need that. What's in that bag?"

"Medical equipment."

"Open it"

Max took off his bag and did as she asked.

"Ok, pack it up and start walking"

"You know, for a girl, you can be very bitchy…"

**WACK!**

"…And painful too."

"I know, move!"


	3. Tale of Halo CHs 9to11

CH. 9

Knowing Your Enemy

"Move faster! I need to catch up with the chosen and kill her."

"It's getting late. Don't you want to set up camp and call it a night? I mean that the chosen's group would set up camp now and holding there ground, shouldn't we do the same? Plus, I need to take some meds."

"Fine, go ahead and take your medicine. Corrine! Scout a head and see what they're doing."

A little dog like creature ran past medic's feet and said, "Yes Sheena" in a squeaky mouse like voice and ran off.

"Two things. One, that thing can talk. Two, your name is Sheena?"

"Yes, did you take your meds? Good, now build a fire while I make the food. Try anything funny and I'll cut you hands off."

"Fine."

Moments later, Max and Sheena sat on oppissit sides of the campfire waiting for the noodles to be done. He was tide to the tree while the assassin was counting her cards. Than she put them away to ask her prisoner some questions. Which might irritate him.

"Okay prisoner, I'm going to ask you some questions. What's your name?"

"Max Demore, I'm a LT. and a medic in the UNSC. And you must be Ms. Bitch Pants Mc Crap-"

"Care to explain what the UNSC is? Or do I have to whack you over the head again?" Sheena said cracking her knuckles. The prisoner knew what would head his way if he finished.

"I'll take the first option."

"Good… now what is it?"

She asked him more than a dozen questions along with several smacks to the head. Max didn't say where he and the fleet came from; he thought it was better not to say. Corrine was back from his mission and reported to Sheena.

"Well, I see that you are right about the chosen's group making camp."

"Told ya. By the way… noodles are way past done. Just so you know."

The assassin looked at the pot and was shocked. "Oh crap!" she yelled jumping up to save her dinner, well… it going to be his dinner now.

"(Sigh…) here's your meal." The assassin said disappointed in her cooking.

"Gee, thanks, what are you going to eat?" he asked.

"Bread and water…. and more bread."

"Ok, mind helping me eat my dinner, since I'm tide to the tree and all?"

"What are we, a couple? Eat with your feet."

Hours past… Sheena was asleep, Corrine doing the same thing, and Max was fake sleeping. His hand couldn't reach his energy sword, so he begins to squirm around slowly loosening the rope the military way. 'There we go.' He thought when he was out of the ropes. He began to look around the small camp to find his weapons. After a few minutes, he found his weapons, but the down side was that Sheena was sleeping on top of them. If he did try to get his them, he's most likely to wake her, and would probably kick his ass or chop of his legs so that way he wouldn't run.

'Great. What am I going now? If I leave without those guns with her, she could hurt someone, but I have the ammunition. And I don't even know where to go from here!' he thought rubbing his head.

_Early the Next Day_

Sheena sniffed the air and noticed something being cooked; the smell was pleasant and wonderful. Then something hit her… who's cooking. She shot up and looked at the tree where she tied her prisoner last night. The ropes were empty. 'Where did he go!' she thought.

"And Corrine," she turned her head towards the voice and found Max and her friend Corrine near the camp fire where her prisoner was cooking, "if you put a good amount of salt and pepper in the scrambled eggs, it'll make it better plus-"

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET OUT OF THOSE ROPES! I checked those ropes at least eight times last night and they were perfectly tight! It's impossible to get out that knot! And Corrine! What are you doing hanging around with our prisoner!" she yelled like a wield banshee at the two of them.

"Sheena! Calm down!" the little fox like creature said, "at lest you should be glad he didn't run away when he got free."

Her eyes shot wider when her friend said that. "Wait, when you got free, why didn't you run away? You had a chance!"

Max then shook his head putting up two fingers, "Ok I'm tired of this… Two things. First off, you were sleeping on my guns, which I can't leave here. Finally, I do not know where to go from here. Even if I did leave, I would most likely die out there from wield animals or starve to death or maybe even you!"

"So you stayed…"

"Yeah, so… do you want Breakfast?" she squinted her eyes at him for a few seconds, "It's poison free you know…" he said adding on. Still not saying anything, Max decided to tease her a bit, "Fine, more for me and your little friend a-"

Her eyes went wide and realized that she hardly had anything to eat last night, "Wait!" she yelled.

CH. 10

Teamwork

Max and Sheena began their travel towards the chosen's group. They sat down to rest on one end of a bridge that connects the two Continents. The assassin was silent and kept an eye on her prisoner carefully.

"Hey Prisoner, can you help me?"

"Why do you need my help all of a sudden?"

"I want you to help me get to a town called Luin? If you do, I will let you go, Deal?"

Max thought for the moment and had no other choice, "Okay… you got your self deal. Can I have my weapons back now?"

"Yes you can have your club and hammer back, if you kill me with these crappy weapons, I will haunt you to the ends of Tethe-um…Sylvarant that's it."

They shake hands and she gave him back his weapons. Later on, they were half way across the bridge when an arrow zipped right past Max's head and another arrow hit Sheena's right shoulder making her collapse to the ground in pain. The medic quickly took aim at the archer hiding in the tree and fired the three rounds burst. The body fell and landed in the river. Four heavily armed warriors appeared and began surrounding them; they were ready to chop their targets into pieces.

"Sheena, you might need to sit out of this one."

His ally looked at him, "What about you? They'll kill you if you do this alone."

"Don't worry, this'll be cake." That line Sheena heard reminded her of someone she knows, but to her relief it wasn't him.

The armored warrior looked at the medic and laughed, "A worm came to fight us alone? This is to fun-" he was then shot in the head before he could even finish.

"Kill the worm!" they yelled and charged.

"You picked a wrong day to mess with the wrong person, Fuckers" Said Max as he easily pick off two of them. The last one came up behind Max gripping him in a bear hug, then pushed him to the ground and started chocking him. Sheena got up and pulled a card out and was now ready to strike the enemy on top of Max. Before she could, a beam of light shot out of the warriors back and disappeared killing the berserker warrior permanently. Max got up and went over to his injured ally.

"Sheena, are you ok?" he said kneeling down

"Yes, I am, but what was that?"

"The Gun or Sword?"

"Umm, Both."

"Ok, the gun is called a battle rifle, and remember that one object you asked about when you took me prisoner

"The hand-warming device?"

"Yeah, it's actually called an Energy Sword and-"

"Is it Magitechnology?"

"Magitech-what? No, let's talk about it later can we? Let me see your shoulder."

"No, it's nothing… We should get movin- aaargh!" She then collapsed to the ground again in pain and pulling out the arrow sticking out of her shoulder.

"We're not moving on now! Not with that wound, now let me look at it…"

"No, it's ok. It will be fine."

"Sheena… what would you like? Having an infected shoulder and getting sick? Or not having an infected shoulder and getting to Luin alive and healthy? Your choice…"

"Fine, I'll take the second option…"

After Sheena was bandaged and was given some painkillers, Max's radio started beeping and a voice came out of it.

"Hello! Is anyone there? Please respond!"

Max quickly responded.

"This is Medical LT. Max Demore speaking. Who is this?"

"Oh thank god! This is PVT. Robert, Listen… I was on the Orbital MAC Gun 36 and there's an extreme accident and what's left of it landed on a beach. Can you come and here and help the wounded since you're a medic and all?"

"Which beach! There must be more than one beach here!"

"I don't know, but it's next to a mountain that has a small town on the side of it. I can't talk much longer, the batteries could run out of energy any sec-"

The marine's line was cut off of and the radio was dead. "Great…" He whispered.

"What is it Max?" Sheena said.

"Sheena, What Mountain has a village on a side of it and near a beach?"

"Hima, Why?"

"Can you move?"

"Yes, now I can, what's the matter?"

"We need to get to Hima, now. Need me to carry you? And do you know the way?"

"No, I can walk and yes, I know the way." She said while rotating her should

The two got up off the ground and began their travel to Hima.

CH. 11

A Days Rest

After hours of walking, Max and Sheena made their way out off a forest and saw smoke of the MAC gun over the mountain. The both of them tried to pick up the paste but Sheena was in shock of pain again and fell to her knees. The medic gave her some more painkillers and a sleeping pill and gave himself a painkiller for his wound, then carried her the rest of the way without stopping. After making the turn around the mountain, he stood there in horror looking at the beach covered with bodies and fragments of the MAC gun. Marines running from wounded to wounded trying to help them. A minute later, a warthog drove up behind him and stopped.

"Oh fuck! Max is that you?" the gunner said happy to see a friendly face

"Fred? What the hell are you doing here? Weren't you fighting the covenant in Russia?"

"I was, but they transferred me to MAC gun 36, which one were you on?"

"43… let's talk later and get to the crash site can we."

"Good thinking, who's the babe?"

"Long story, can we get a lift?"

"Sure, hop in."

After less than five minutes of driving, the vehicle pulled up to one of the tents already constructed. (136 tents built)

"Ok Max, this well be you and sleeping beauties tent for a while."

"Thanks, oh ya, who's in charge here right now?"

"General Greg Hoth."

"I see, after I put her in the tent can you drive me to the medical tent so I can..."

"Actually Max, why don't you get some rest, what ever you did out there, you deserve the rest of the dang day off. Oh hell! Maybe the entire week!"

"Noted…" The medic said watching his friend drive off towards the garage to drop off the 'Hog'.

Max then carried the sleeping Sheena into the tent and put her on the cot.

"How is she Max?" Max turned around and saw Corrine sitting behind him.

"She'll be alright. Once she's able to walk long distance's, I'll travel with you two to Luin as promised."

"I'm proud of her to find another friend."

"What, another friend?"

"Yes, Sheena doesn't really have that many friends in her life, and one of them she hate's a lot."

Max thought about what Corrine said, 'Hardly any friends… reminds of me when I was young.'

"What do we do now Max?"

"We wait till Sheena wakes up, then we'll talk on what to do."

"How long will that be?"

"2 hours or less, need to know anything else?"

"No, but I hope she wakes up soon." Corrine said as he jumped up on to the cot that Sheena was on and he to fell asleep. Max looked at the two of them on the cot then he looked at his half empty bag full of medical equipment and felt his stomach growl. "Better go get some food and supplies."

The medic walked out of the tent leaving a note to Sheena that he was going to the medical tent and bringing back some food the for Her and Corrine. He walked into some more familiar faces on the way till he made it to the tent. "Hi, I need some more medical supplies this evening. Can you get the things on the list here." The nurse examined the list and shook her head. "I'm sorry LT. we can only give out half the things on the list, but the rest of the on the supplies will arrive next week." He gave out a low sigh and walked out of the tent with only half the things he got.

He then finally came back to the tent with food at the same time Sheena and Corrine woke. "Good to see you two up, I brought back some food. I bet you two must be hungry." After they eat, the two then talked about where they are right now and what they would do next.


	4. Tales of Halo CH 12to14

(A.N. I know I made more mistakes on these next three chapters, but go a head and say on what you need to say when you review. I will fix these chapters later.)

Ch. 12

A New Uniform for a… Medic?

_The same night when_

_Max got his things…_

"General, sir, scientists say that the bomb must of sent use and 1/8 of the UNSC fleet into another dimension."

"Ok, but how the hell do we get from this dimension back to our dimension?" The general yelled slamming his fist on the panels.

"They believe it world take 6-7 months to make another bomb. That's the only option we have so far."

"Let's change subjects now. Do you have the total of alive, MIA, and KIA of UNSC personal?"

The officer didn't say a word and handed him the list.

Alive 53,063

MIA 57

KIA 314

"Are you sure this is exact, officer?"

"Actually, one medic just arrived here and was reported in as alive. He was missing for almost one week."

"Who is this marine?"

The officer turned on a computer and brought up his File. "This should be him sir"

The general looked at the screen and saw the name, "Max Demore"

"Son, tomorrow morning, Have someone bring this marine here, understood?"

"Yes sir, tomorrow morning."

Max woke from a terrible dream, his face was covered with sweat and he was breathing heavily. Sheena and Corrine also woke up to see what happened.

"Max, are you okay? "

"Yeah… it was just a dream…" the medic then reached out to grab his canteen, but accidentally knocked his grandfathers pen off the small table next to his cot. Corrine examined the pen on the ground and his eyes went wide when he saw the writing on it. "Sheena! The writing on this object is in Mizuho language!"

"What!" Sheena reached down and snatched the pen and also examined it. "Where did you find this?"

He looked at the both of them and shook his head in confusion. "Wait a second, what is Mizuho language? And I got this thing from my grandfather."

Then his radio interrupted their conversation, he picked it up and answered the caller.

"Hello? …Yeah, this is him … what? … right now? Who am I meeting then? … THE GENERAL! … I'll be there soon." He put away his radio and put on his gear. "Where are you going?" the assassin said getting out of her cot. "I got to meet the general right now. I'll see you later." Max then walked out the tent in a fast pace.

He made it to the wrecked Bridge; many computers were broken and/or blown up. He found the general talking to a officer and a scientist. He saluted to the general and the general also gave a salute back at him. "Medical LT. Max Demore reporting for duty sir."

"Welcome LT. Demore, you are here to tell us why were you reported MIA for almost a week. Start telling us everything you know."

Max started telling what happened to him from the beginning till now. The general found the story very strange, but it all really happened. "Do you have any evidence on this story LT.?" the officer questioned him lifting an eyebrow.

"You forgot that our helmets have a little tiny video camera on it, so here's the chip, and start watching it." The scientist put the chip into the computer and played it. Max had to point out the battle scenes, the escape of him and Lloyd, the battle at the Seal of Fire, and the battle on the bridge. The general, officer, and scientist talked for five minutes then turned to Max ready to give him a response.

"LT., I'm going to giving you a mission."

"A mission? What kind of mission?"

The officer handed him a folder that would contain his mission. Max opened it and looked at it. He then looked back at the general and did not know what to say, but then he knew what to say. "Sir, what do you mean by 'find out where we are for within 6-7 months,' how the hell do I find get that information?"

"We can give you unlimited requests for backup and supplies and we will give you information on what we got while you travel on your own or find the chosen's group and travel with them to get answers also. This mission could be suicidal, but it's worth a try while we make a new bomb that could get us all back to our world. Before you leave, this scientist will give you something new we found on this wrecked MAC gun, it could give you some help."

The scientist took out a bag from behind a table and gave it to Max. He took the bag; it was heavy enough to probably flatten the tires of a Ford pick up truck. He opened to it and took out a black helmet and examined it. "Isn't this a… MARC 6 armor!"

"Yes, Dr. Tamo found out a way for normal marines to wear MARC 6 armor. But now we're calling it a MARC 7. So we're going to give you the only one we have for you to use in this mission…you are dismissed."

Max and the general saluted and left. On the way back to the tent, Max took this time to think. 'Me, a Medical LT. using a MARC 7, this is not normal.'

CH. 13

Departure

Max, Sheena and Corrine walked for some time to Luin. In countering many bandits along the way did not stop their progress. The assassin was a little surprised to find Max in his new black armor and how he uses it. Earlier, they were attacked by three assassins, when two of the assassins try to stab Max in the chest at the same time, their knives made contact but a yellow shock of electricity that was formed around Max and shocked the two assassins. She thinks that the armor is special.

"Hey, Sheena," Max said, "Do you know were Luin is?"

"Yes, should be there before lunch… hey Max, what's with the new armor. Did your medic uniform get dirty or something?" Sheena trying make it sound like a joke, but…

"Sorry Sheena, I didn't find that funny at all." He said still walking, "Still wondering why I'm wearing this thing, aren't you?" Sheena gave him a nod and he told her why he wears the MARC 7 and what his mission is.

"I see, so you have to be serious on these missions, right? I mean, you can have some relaxation during your six to seven month operation."

"Sheena, when I have the information need. Then I will relax during the mission."

After hours of their conversation they reached Luin. The streets were crowded and busy, lot of people looked at the black armored warrior walking past shops and pickpockets stayed a safe distance away from him. Sheena stopped in front of Max and turned around face to face.

"Well Max, you kept your promise to get me here to Luin and now you are free to go."

"What about you? Oh wait a minute… your going to continue trying to assassinate the chosen aren't ya?"

"Well… um… uh… see ya around!"

Sheena shook his hand and ran away in a split second. In the mean time, the both of them started thinking as the distance between them widened.

Sheena's thoughts…

'Let's see… he's nice and caring person, a doctor or a medic or what ever the hell you call him, serious on his duties, good cook, two years older than me, and more mature than that idiot chosen… Maybe we'll meet again some day. Now off to Palmacosta'

Max's thoughts…

'I hate to think of this while I'm on a mission, but she was kind a cute though. Ok where to start?'

"You there!"

Max turned around and saw at lest 10 Desians marching towards him. They were ready with their weapons out and aimed at him. "Take your helmet off, now!" Barked the leader of the group. He did as he was commanded and took it off. "Just as I thought, you are the one of the prisoners back in the Triet Desert that escaped. You will surrender your weapons and you will be taken back to the Human Ranch."

"The only way you guys are going to force me to do those thing's are over my god damn dead body." He said putting his helmet back on.

The battle was over before it even started as the last two remaining Desians retreated out of the town. Many of the eyes of the town's people stared at Max for a good 5 minutes or so. He then started thinking that if he is a wanted criminal, the Desians maybe would do anything to get him and his weapons. If his weapons were taken then they would some how make copies and have an army of destruction. There was only one way to solve this problem, to leave the town and continue his mission.

CH. 14

Three Weeks Later…

It has been three weeks since Max started his mission. He's been stopping here and there for information but only got things on the world regeneration, been attacked by unfriendly creatures and people, and had to make some calls for ammunition and supplies.

Today he finally made it to a town called Asgard. there was not much to see though. Many shops and houses were in the mountain. "Max!" the medic turned around to see who was calling him and it was Genis.

"Hey Genis, where's the others?"

"They're at the temple here to summon the Guardian of the Seal of Wind. But, how did you escape from that Assassin Sheena?"

"You guys met her again? How is she?"

"What! Why are you asking me 'how is she?' she's our enemy!"

"More than meets the eye my friend. Let's talk about it later and get to the temple, 'K?"

Max and Genis ran up the flight of stairs to get to the top while Max was explained on what happening right now. When the both of them reached the top, the chosen's group turned and their eyes went wide as they saw their friendly medic again. He noticed that Professor Raine was dressed in some ritual custom.

"Max, where the have you been for the last three weeks?" Raine started before anyone else.

"Long story Raine, long story. I heard that you guys were going to waken the guardian of the Wind Seal. How are you all going to do that?"

The group told Max on the plan, it sounded like a good idea. The medic added some things in the conversation about his mission, and decided to hang around with the chosen's group while getting information he needs.

"It's time." The mayor of Asgard said "And who is this Man in black armor?" Max stepped forward, "Max Demore." He said.

"Well let us not waste any time and start the ritual." The mayor said like if he wasn't really important right now. Raine moved on to the stage and did the dancing ritual. The stage started to glow and a beam of light came out from the center and a creature appeared. "I came for the girl…" the thing said as it hovered over the ground.

(Description of the creature…

Big claws, the head looked like a dragon… I think, and the bottom half of its body had a huge crescent blade as a weapon.)

Colette was shocked and yelled at the Professor, "No, Professor run! This is not the guardian of the seal!"

"Damn!" Lloyd said jumping up on to the stage followed by the others drawing their weapons.

(A.N. I had to skip battle, sorry, I don't know how to describe it! But go a head and imagine on how you think the battle was fought.)

_5 hours later…_

After their battle against the fake guardian, the group spent the rest of their day in the inn in Asgard except for Raine who was still out examining the tablet they recovered. Max went to bed before the others without eating dinner and checking his heavily damaged MARC 6 armor that he has placed on the nearby table in the room with a huge cut on the area where the battery pack is. Even though it must have been a while since Max slept in a soft clean bed.

Max was awoken by the sound of a door opening and closing. Quickly, he took out his M6C pistol hidden under his pillow and aimed at the intruder. It was Genis, hands in the air and shaking like crazy.

"Oh, its you Genis. Have you ever heard of knocking?" Max said as he put down his gun.

"Sorry, I thought you were actually going to shoot me there at the moment." He said relaxing himself.

"Always check your target before firing. Why are you here?"

"I was checking to see if you were sleeping or faking it. But I guess you were asleep. Do you want me to tell you what's been happening to us for the past three in a half weeks?"

Max looked at the clock hanging on the wall reading '8:34.' "Sure. Maybe we'll swap stories on what happened to us."

(A.N. Now I'm going to take a break for at least week or two off this story. I hope you all can wait that long. Plus take a look at my profile and look at the list of my fav. Games, anime, and movies, then email me another idea for a second story or give you an idea for a story. Peace!


	5. Tale of Halo CHs 15to17

Ch. 15

Arrival at the

Seal of Wind

It was a late morning in Asgard, and Max was to tired get up after his three-week mission. He turned his head towards the clock. His eyes opened a bit only seeing 11:13 in the morning. He leaned up and looked around his room. Looking at the huge cut on the back of the armor that he got from that monster yesterday. He then got out of his bed and examined it hoping that he could use it again, but was wrecked completely.

Reaching over for the radio to see if he could get it repaired, Max noticed a note on the table lying next to the radio. 'What's this? This wasn't here last night' Max then picked it up and started to read it.

Max,

Raine was so crazy on discovering the location of the Seal of Wind on the tablet we got yesterday. We had to leave immediately without waking you. Kratos said it would be better for you to rest. We all decided to wait for you there. It will be at the Asgard temple and we will try waiting for you. If you don't arrive till than, we'll go in and you could meet us somewhere inside, or wait outside.

From,

Genis

P.S. we left you a map, it should be under you helmet, it would lead you towards the temple. See you soon.

Max turned to his helmet that was on the shelf and picked up the map under it. He examined it and saw that all the locations were marked on the map of every city, village, Desian Base's, ruins, and islands. His finger ran across the map hoping he might find the words, 'Asgard Temple,' then…

'Bingo.' he thought as his finger found it. He then reached for the radio.

"This is Medical Lieutenant Max Demore to crash MAC gun, is anyone there, over." Max said while getting his gear together.

"This is Operator Corporal Sam Trace from the crashed MAC gun, I hear you loud and clear. What is your request?"

"I need a Pelican pick up and drop off."

"Okay Lieutenant, your call has been traced and a Pelican Drop ship will be there in 10 minutes, anything else?"

"Yeah there is, I need my MARC 7 to be repaired."

"Okay, a combat medic uniform will be brought over with a Drop ship, over and out."

30 Minutes Later… 

Max was standing in the passengers seating part of the Drop ship in a medic combat suit.

(Description…

Earpiece radio,

Military Hat, (It's the hat that looks like a fisher mans cap/hat) with a small Red cross on the front of it, (Which stands for a medic)

A vest with two pockets and a bigger red cross,

And the vest has thin titanium plates inside of it to protect him from stray bullets and plasma shots from a plasma pistol.)

"You sure you'll be ok without that armor of yours?" the pilots said before landing.

"Yeah, I'll be ok, just wait here incase me and some friends need a extraction."

"Copy that, have a good hunt'n."

The drop ship came to a stop and Max jumped out onto the ground in front of the temple. He looked at the entrance and saw that it was wide open with no one standing outside.

'Good hunt'n my ass.' He thought as he walked in SMG at the ready.

CH. 16

Alone in the

Dark Am I…?

Max walked through the corridors of the temple avoiding traps and firing at the monsters that hide in the dark. He had to tape his flashlight to his right shoulder instead of holding it in one hand and shooting with the other.

'Goddamn it you guys, where are you? You should have left a map of this place too.' He thought shooting at a huge spider like creature. 'Two clips left of the SMG, better switch the Battle Rifle and-' his train of thoughts were interrupted when he heard sound of footsteps and rocks being kicked. Max didn't waste a minute. He turned off his flashlight and hid in a dark corner covering him self with cobwebs to make himself more invisible.

Max couldn't see to clearly in the dark when his only light was off. All he could see is a figure of a female maybe in her early twenties, maybe the same height as Professor Raine, and was mumbling something he could barely. All Max could hear was, "This temp…wher…chose…"

Max then turned on his flashlight to reveal… Sheena?

"Sheena? What the hell are you doing here?" Max said being the first to talk.

"I could ask you the same thing." She asked back.

"Umm, I asked you first"

"Ok fine. I'm here to kill the chosen…you?"

"I'm traveling with the chosen."

The both of them stared at each other for a silent five seconds. Then each of them ran to opposite of the of the temples room leaving a ten yard gap between them and pulled out there weapons. Sheena took out her spell cards and Max pulled out his Covenant Energy Sword without turning it on. (Which he still has…lucky bastered.)

They held there ground waiting to see who will move first. Max saw that Sheena move to his left ran right at him. All he could hear was the footsteps of his opponent and… his heart beat.

_6yard gap…_

He closed his eyes and listened carefully to his heartbeat till the sound of footsteps faded.

_4yard gap…_

He then opened his eyes and what seemed to him that time felt a lot slower.

_1yard gap…_

Max then squeezed the handle to the sword and watched it come to life. He cut the spell cards that were in her hand in half, followed by a knee kick to the stomach knocking the wind out of her, and ending his combo with grazing her shoulder 1/2 inch deep with the tip of his sword.

Sheena went flying back into the stonewall and fell down to the floor. The medic walked over to what seemed to be knocked out assassin. And he was right. He bandaged up her wound and slumped her sleeping carcass over his body and walked back to the entrance.

'I guess I was the one that held back, sorry.' Max thought not noticing Corrine following close behind.

Max was getting closer to his exit. He then heard talking of familiar people.

'Could it be? Finally! Goddamn it!'

CH. 17

Unknown Strength

Later that Night… 

Max was leaning against a tree while Genis, Raine, and Kratos were sleeping, but Colette and Lloyd were having some kind of argument, which he could not under stand because it was his turn on night watch.

Sheena, the assassin, was tied to the tree sweating in pain from the hard blows Max has given her. He checked her to see if she might have had any serious injuries besides the cut on her left shoulder. He discovered that she had two broken rib bones that she must have got from the knee charge and a dislocated right shoulder from the colliding into the wall.

Max knew if she doesn't get these wound treated properly, she's going to have trouble sleeping. He walked over to Kratos who was still sleeping and gently shook his shoulder to wake him. The traveling mercenary then leaned up to find the medic waking him.

"Hey Kratos, I'm kind of worried about our prisoner. She has very bad injuries that might need treatment." he said walking Kratos over to Sheena.

"What are her injuries?" The half-awake Kratos said rubbing his eyes.

"Two Broken ribs, a small cut on her left shoulder, and her right shoulder is dislocated. And I was wondering if I could take her to Luin to get her injuries treated properly."

Kratos looks at Max, then at our prisoner, and then looks back at Max again with some confusion. "Max, why are you being soft hearted on our prisoner."

"In the military I'm in, after a battle medics have to help heal the wounded on our side and our enemies side. But right now where I come from, the enemies we're fighting can't be helped." Max said trying to hurry the conversation to the end.

"Ok Max, you can take her to Luin, Me and the others might be there in a few days. Can you wait?"

Max answered with a nod. The plan was set for now. Kratos was now on night duty while Max called in for a drop ship. While Max was getting things set, something got on his mind. He stopped what he was doing and walked towards Kratos.

"Hey Kratos, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"The fight I had with Sheena earlier today. Something, or something that I did, was really strange to me." Kratos then turned his head, which Max thought he was interested in what he was saying.

"Go on."

Max told Kratos everything that happened at that fight, from beginning, to the end. Kratos was thinking on what he heard.

"Max, do you have a exsphare on you? With a special ore attached to it?"

"No. Why do you ask that? And what's an exsphare? "

"A exsphare is something that a warrior, spell caster, mercenary, and a doctor use magic abilities and sword abilities. And you're a warrior and somewhat of a doctor, and you did something that no one else can do with out an exsphare."

"What are the odds of have these kind of abilities?" Max asked raising an eyebrow.

"One out of Ninety-trillion."

The sound of engines of a Pelican drop ship roared in the sky. Max almost forgot to get some of his things together ready.

Moments later, Max was on his way with the injured prisoner to Luin, not knowing hundreds of Desians about to make their strike.

(A.N. Yeah I'm adding a lot of twist and turns on this story, so forgive me. I might take some events from movies, games, anime, etc. I almost forgot about the pairings… there the usual, but Sheena x OC is really going to happen. Just so you know.)


	6. Tales of Halo CH 18to19

CH. 18

News and Realizing…

_12:53 AM, Luin…_

"Many thanks Doctor. Here's your pay and have a good night." Max said paying the doctor for helping him with Sheena's wounds. "I have to thank you because you taught me some things I didn't quite know. And yes, you two have a good night also."

After the doctor left, the medic made his bedroom where he found Corrine was sleeping on the assassin's stomach. 'Those two must be close.' He thought as he took off his equipment. Leaving him only wearing a black tank top, and was still wearing his army pants. There were many scars on his arms and shoulders (including the scar from the Seal of Fire) and some more else where on his body.

He then pulled up a chair to the bed and sat there looking at her. She wasn't having any trouble sleeping which was good for her. "Was it okay to bring her here?" he whispered to himself as quiet as he could, but…

"Yes it was I have to say." Corrine suddenly said making him jump a little.

"Corrine, your awake?" he whispered again.

"Yep, so how is she? Is Sheena going to be alright?"

"Yeah, she'll be alright. Her shoulder should be fine tomorrow, but her ribs will take a week or so to heal. If she feels strong tomorrow, then she'll be fully recovered in one night."

"Did you use an apple gel?" the little fox-thing asked tilting his head to one side.

"No I didn't… wait, what's an apple gel?"

"What! You don't know what an apple gel is! Then what do your people do when they're in this kind of situation!" he yelled at Max in his high tone voice.

"Corrine! Shut the hell up! Sheena's still asleep!"

"Oh. Sorry. Maybe we should pick this up tomorrow?"

"How about we stop it right here and get some sleep. I need sleep too you know." The medic said rubbing his eyes

"But where are you going to sleep?" Corrine said, "This was the last room available and it only had one bed."

"I think I'm going to sleep on the floor, besides, this room does have extra pillows and blankets."

"Ok, goodnight Max." the summon spirit said going to back to sleep.

Before Max could get the things to sleep on out, his earpiece radio started to beep. 'Who's calling me at this time?' he thought for the moment, 'Oh yeah…' he picked up the radio and walked out into the hall.

"Hello, this is Medical Lieutenant Max Demore speaking." The medic said waiting for a response.

"Hello Lieutenant, this is Specialist Conner of Orbital MAC Gun 142#." The Caller said, "I was informed about your mission, and I was told to inform you that there's a lot of activity near your area. Its to big to be a herd of animals."

"Well, did you guys send a scout fighter or something to check it out?"

"Yeah, the pilots readings weren't clear enough to tell what it was. All we know it's a large group of at least five hundred life forms of some sort in a forest. And they're moving towards the town your in."

Max rubs his head and thinks for the moment. "When while they arrive?"

"We predict sometime before 1100 hours. What do you think we should do?"

The medic's eyes opened wider at the question. "Why are you asking me? Ask the People that outrank me."

Later in the Morning In the Chosen's Group… 

Lloyd woke up after being bash in the head several times for sleeping late…again

"OUCH! Kratos! You don't have to hit me with the butt end of your sword." The swordsman complained.

"Maybe we wouldn't if you woken up earlier." Genis said putting his Kendama over his shoulder, "by the way Raine where is Max and our prisoner?"

The Mercenary stepped forward to answer the question for the Professor, "He said that the girl needed have her wounds to be fixed properly. And we agreed to meet him in Luin ether late tonight or tomorrow."

Then the Professor lowered her head and crossed her arms thinking. Colette saw this, "What's the matter Professor?" she said.

"I was thinking. Haven't you all noticed something about Max that's changed?"

Every one looked at each other and didn't know the answer… well… except for Genis.

"Yeah when we first met him, he had no sign of mana in him. Yesterday before we went through the temples exit, there was something with huge amount of mana come towards us and it was Max." he said.

Kratos crossed his arms and thought, 'Is the myth of the Mana carriers real?'

CH. 19

Guns and Bows

_Early Morning in Luin_

_Before the Chosen's Group _

_Conversation…_

Sheena opened her eyes slowly. She was at least expecting to be staring at the sky or the stone ceiling of the temple. But instead, she was staring at a wooden ceiling of the inn in Luin and it only took her a few minutes to realize it.

The next thing she found was Corrine sleeping on her stomach. She always knew best friend would never leave her. Then she heard a ruffling sound next to the bed she was sleeping in. She turned her head to find Max lying on the cold floor with a blanket on top of him and his right hand under his pillow. (Fingers on the trigger if know what I mean.)

Sheena felt no pain in her. The ribs were fixed and her shoulder is reconnected. She then smiled and closed her eyes to rest more. Just then an arrow came in through the window and nailed itself on the doorframe with a ping sound. Max heard this and jumped to his feet pulling out his SMG that was hidden under his pillow.

"What the hell was that?" he said racing to put on his gear.

Sheena rolled off the bed waking Corrine on top of her. "I don't know."

Then a knock came from the door. The two turned their heads towards the door more ready then ever. "Who's there!" the medic shouted while changing from SMG to Battle Rifle.

"Desians of the Asgard Ranch! Surrender your self and you might come out alive!" the voice said. 'Desians? What are the Desians doing here? Oh no…' Sheena thought wielding her spell cards.

"Hey Sheena!" her thoughts were cut short when her ally yelled, "go over to that window and tell me what you see."

She crawled to the window and looked in horror at the sight. Hundreds of Desians ran down the street, some entering houses to bring out the villagers and kill those who resist then they would destroy the build with fire or spell casting to damage the building.

"Sheena, what wrong? What do you see?" Max said quickly walking over to the window seeing what Sheena's seeing. "Oh my god" he said.

Then his radio beeped. He put the Earpiece radio in his ear to talk to the caller. "Lieutenant, this is Specialist Conner, you're in the middle of the activity we received yesterday. It came earlier then we thought, what's going on down there?"

"I SAID OPEN THE DAMN DOOR HUMAN!" the Desian yelled on standing out side of their door.

"Hold on a second," Max then took out his SMG and shot at the door. The bullets tore through the door killing or injuring him. "Now tell me what you just heard right there!"

There was a gasp on the other end of the radio, "Covenant! You're under attack by the Covenant! But I thought we got rid of the ones in space a few weeks ago."

"What! No these people that are attacking aren't the Covenant. But I do need some back up right now."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do for you. Just hang tight." Then the radio went dead.

"What now Max? More might come at us any minute." Sheena said while peaking out the window more.

"I think we should resist. I did shoot that one guy at the door didn't I?"

"Yes, besides the Desians are a great threat on this side and-" she stopped talking after realizing what she said.

"'This side?' What do you mean by 'this side'?"

"I guess I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I?"

"Maybe we'll have to do a little story swap when this is over. Now then, let's get moving and hunt some of these guys down."

The two ran out of the room and moved down the flight of stares on the outside of the inn. Max made his way to corner firing at the enemy. He turned around to find that Sheena was gone. 'Where'd she go? Maybe went to fight elsewhere. She should have told me before she went of on her own!' He thought. He then fired at a Desian in the head that was standing several feet in front of him.

Sheena forgot to tell Max where she's heading in Luin. But there wasn't any time, she ran as fast as she could to her destination slaughtering her enemies along the way. 'Please, oh please goddess Martel let the children be safe.' She then approached a house passing the sign with the word "orphanage" written on it.

Sheena entered the building and found all the young children huddling around a priest in the corner of the room. A little girl ran across the room to her and hugged her.

"Sheena!" the girl began to cry, "I-I'm scared, please make the bad people go away. 'sob'"

Sheena then put her hand on the girls head to calm her, "Don't worry, I won't the anyone hurt you and the others."

"Don't worry miss, we'll just hurt you instead." She then whipped around to the voice that said that, there were 3 Desians stood at the door with their swords drawn, and smiling. The girl let go of Sheena and ran back to the other.

"Try me." She said getting into a battle stance. The first Desian charged her and swung his sword, but missed as she rolled to the side. Using her ninja like skills, Sheena came in and hit the Desian at least seven times with her cards, then ending it with a Life Seal.

The Desian fell to the ground defeated. Sheena was then pushed in the back and she tumbled face first into the wood floor. She quickly leapt to feet and eliminated the next one.

Then the last one started to cast, If Sheena could stop him before the Desian could finish, and she would have the upper hand. Before she could strike her enemy, a loud explosion shuck the build, which made the two from stopped fighting. With Sheena distracted, the Desian tackled her forcing her to the ground again.

The Desian began to choke her and Sheena could not find a way to escape the grasp. She closed her eyes wanting the pain she would about to receive to go away. Seconds later, she heard a loud bang, something wet falling on her, the grip of the hands around her neck releasing, and the body of her attacker fall on top of her.

Sheena opened her eyes and pushed the body of her and looked at the doorway. A man in a UNSC uniform stood there with a rifle that has a barrel as long as his arm length.

"Are you ok miss?" the man said as he lowered his hand to help her up. Sheena took the hand and picked up her spell cards. The mans eyes went wide when he recognized her, "Hey I remember you, your that one chick that Max was carrying to the crash MAC gun and me and the driver gave you two a lift. Wait, where's Max anyway? Oh, you got a little blood on your face." (Of course you might know who your thinking it is… Fred.)

After Sheena wiped the blood off her face, she then gasped and remembered, "I came here to the Orphanage without telling him."

"Why did you not tell him?" Fred said lifting an eyebrow.

"It was an emergency for the children's sake."

Fred looked behind her and found a group of children in the corner and a priest. Mouthing a "goddamn it", he took out his radio.

"Hello Thunderbolt? This is Fred I need an evac for a group of orphans and an elder on my position, over."

The radio crackled and a female voice answered, "This is Thunderbolt I hear you loud and clear. I'll be there in sixty seconds, over and out."

"Copy that." Fred put away his radio and turned to Sheena. "Chick, you better go look for Max and help him out."

Then a marine ran up to them with bad news, "Fred, I got a report that the enemy jacked part of our ground convoy as they entered the city."

"What was jacked?" Fred said as he put his sniper rifle over his shoulder.

"They jacked the only two Scorpion tanks that were sent and our rocket men that were riding it were killed and their rocket launchers were stolen. This could be a problem." The marine turned to the door and turned back to them, "and your rides here." He pointed at the Pelican drop ship that had the word "Thunderbolt" near the cockpit window.

"Wait minute, do these people know how to use our vehicles and weapons?"

"Well if they drove away without hitting a building and when they fired the rockets which were almost accurate in less than five minutes, then these people might be smarter than a thousand monkeys on typewriters."

Mean While… 

'I'm almost out of ammo… and where's the hell's the damn Calvary when you need them.' Max thought as he put his last clip in his SMG.

When the coast was clear, he ran across the street, putting his back against a building, and approached a corner. Peeking his head out to see, he saw a group of 20 Desians marching down the street towards him.

Max moved a few yards away from the building and thought, 'What ever happened to me yesterday when I fought Sheena, maybe I could do it again.' He ran at the wall putting one foot on it then the other and jumped. He then flew up a bit to the edge of the roof and grabbed it.

When on top, Max was on his back with his eyes wider than every. He just took two steps of running up a wall and jumped at least four yards in the air and made it to the roof that was like six yards from the ground.

"No fucking way…" he said to himself. Getting a hold of himself, he looked down and saw that he was right on top of the Desian group. Tossing his last frag grenade and not his plasma grenade, he caught them off guard as half of the group flew in the air with missing limbs and crashed on the surface.

To the Desians surprise, Max then fired his SMG on the group killing them all. The medic then discarded his SMG knowing it was out of ammo. Now, Max only has his Energy Sword, and Plasma Grenade.

"What the hell am I going to do know?" Max then talked to himself, "Maybe I should look for Sheena."

Then a Scorpion tank rolled out around a corner and stopped. 'Finally.' Max thought as he began to wave at the tank. Then the tank aimed its barrel at the building Max was standing on.

The hatch of it opened revealing to Max that the tank was being controlled by a… Desian. The Desian had a smile on his face. But then Max knew what this means.

"Mother F-" the Desian cut him off as it fired its big cannon at the building making it leveled to the ground. The roof Max was on collapsed taking him into the falling building.

Max landed hard on some of the rubble, which hurt like hell. He looked up at the hole in the roof and watched the building collapse right on top of him. There was no way he could possible avoid these when all he could see is darkness.

Mean While… 

"Did you hear that?" Sheena said as she, Fred, some other marines, and warriors protecting Luin they picked up stopped walking.

"Sounded like a Scorpion tank, it's really close by." Fred then did some military hand signals to two marines telling them to scout ahead. The marines nodded and ran to the corner of the building. The rest of the large group stopped to wait for the "all clear" signal.

One of the marines ran back to the group with the news on what they saw, "Fred, we've spotted our jacked stuff, but there's only one tank so we don't know where the other one is."

As soon as the marine finished, the other marine at the corner quickly turned around and yelled at them, "INCOMING! GET DOWN!"

Then four small explosions hit the building followed by a fifth larger explosion absolutely destroyed part of the building. The marine then started to fire at the enemy while Fred thought of a plan then it hit him. He turned to Sheena and the other warriors. "Sheena right? I want you and the others to go around that side of the street and come up behind them while we distracted them. Once you're behind them, slaughter them."

Sheena nodded to him and told the others to follow. Fred and the marine went to the corner to help their friend with the problem. "So how are they holding up?" Fred said.

"I don't get it, they just fired four rockets and they aren't firing anymore." Out of the blue, 4 rocket launchers flew to their feet with no ammo in them, "I get it now, they don't know how to reload. That's one less thing on the worried list."

"Ditto." Said Fred and the other marine.

"HEY!" All three of the soldiers turned their heads and saw Sheena and the warriors that were with them waving to them as they all stood on the tank.

"Pretty damn fast for bunch of medieval peasants. What do you think you guys?" Fred then started to walk to the group.

'That was really easy.' Sheena thought, 'but still where's Max?' then she looked at the ground to find the same gun Max had, the SMG. She picked it up and yelled, "Corrine!"

Then a cloud of smoke erupted from the ground revealing Corrine. "What is it?" he said.

"Dose this weapon have Max's scent on it? If it does, seek him out." Corrine took a few good sniffs of the gun and ran off in a direction being followed by Sheena.

After a few minutes of running, Corrine stopped in front of a leveled building. Sheena caught up with him and put her hands on her knees in exhaustion. She looked up in confusion.

"Why are we stopping here?" she said.

"Hold on Sheena, I have to know if this is the right place." Corrine sniffs the ground a bit then the air, "Yep thought so, he's somewhere in the rubble."

Sheena gasped on what she just heard. 'Max…'

(A.N. To the readers that read this story, you've been noticing that I put chapters in groups. I was thinking of changing it to update one chapter at a time. I've been rushing the story a lot so I'm want some of you readers to email me votes on which option I should do.

Take my time and do one chapter at a time.

Put in as many chapters in at one time.

Results must be in before June 2, 06.

P.S. Please review this part of my story since I've been working my ass off on it for a while and I deserve at least three or more. Thank you if do.)


	7. Tales of Halo CH 20

(A.N. Before you can start reading, I would really like to thank the people that reviewed my last two Chapters I last updated. And in other news, the votes are in on whether I should take my time and do one chapter at a time, or I should put the chapters in groups and rush the story, (Drum roll) and the winning option is A (I should take my time and do one chapter at a time)! And for every one that voted, you're all winners! So now enjoy a new Chapter of Tales of Halo. Oh yeah, if you don't understand the beginning of this chapter, please wait for future chapters.)

CH. 20

Seconds From Death

'Where am I?' Max opened his eyes as he lie on the ground and saw men and woman standing around him wearing different clothes. Most of them wore medieval armor holding different weapons, and the rest wore Renaissance, civil war uniforms, World War I and II uniforms from all sides, 21st century modern soldiers, and five UNSC marines, but two of them was his father and grandfather.

"I must be seeing shit. Who the hell are you people?"

"We are warriors of the Wars that we fought and died in the past of earth history and we are the Mana carriers from this world." One of UNSC marines standing next to his father said.

"Mana carriers? What are Mana carriers?"

"Mana carriers," Max's father began, "are a rear species of man from this world. Each one of us produces unlimited amount of Mana. Since we have endless Mana, we could do things that no other man, elf, and those in between could do without exsphares, we could live forever, and we hunger for battle. Billions of years ago before the meteor hit earth and the creation of earth, our population became to great to this world, so we created that meteor and came to earth."

"I'm going to guess that was your new home." Max said as he stood up off the ground.

"Yes it was, but most of us died when we hit earth and we didn't know that we brought normal human DNA with us. From up until now, we joined armies and fought with and against each other while living among the humans."

"How am I involved with this Mana carrier crap?"

"Because," his grandfather began to answer, "you are half Mana carrier and half human."

Max chuckled a bit before he said anything, "You're kidding right? Wait… if I did those two things, which were seeing my opponent slow down, and running up a six-yard wall to get to the top of a building, that's part of being part Mana carrier right?"

His father nodded, "Yes, but you're just beginning to learn this, but most of all you must keep this a secret to the people of earth."

Max eyed his father in confusion, "why should I keep it a secret? I still don't understand all of this." After he finished, the people around him started to vanish including his father and grandfather.

"What's happening? Where are you going?" the medic started to panic.

"Max, this will be the last time we'll see you." His grandfather spoke, "further on your adventure with your friends, use that key I gave you before my death. It will help you find the answers of our peoples history." Then he vanished leaving Max and his father.

"Max…" he began, "I love you and if you do get back to earth, tell your mother that I love her as well and tell her that I'm always thinking of the two of you even if I am gone… good bye." He smiles as he disappears slowly.

"Dad…" before Max could finish, he was gone, "I love you too dad…" he collapsed to his knees as he had a tear slip down from one of his eyes, "and I will tell mom that you love her too." For years he never seen his father, and it was too sad for him to see him leave again, it was hard.

Then everywhere around him went completely black and felt a cold feeling all over him. He stood up and wiped the tear off his face. He then felt a cold wind hitting his back, which made him turn around. To his horror, standing before him now, was the angel of death, the Grim Reaper.

The Grim walked up to Max and stopped, "You are dying." He said.

"Dying? Dying from what?" Just then, the Grim snapped his bone like fingers and sharp pain spread thought the medic's body, which made him doubled over. A cut appeared on his uniform showing a deeper cut on his chest, felt something poke on his right lung (broken ribs), on his left arm another cut showed as it went from his elbow to the wrist, a small vertical cut revealed under his left eye, a long sharp stick going into his right leg, and blood traveling down the right side of his face.

The pain was too much for Max as he fell on all fours and began to cough up blood. He rolled onto his back and was watched as he tried to pull the stick out of his leg, but it wouldn't budge.

"Shit… it's to much." He said as he lye on the ground with no strength left. He watched as Death put his skeleton hand over his face ready to take Max's life. The medic closed his eyes waiting for the end.

Before the Grim could touch him, two tiny drops of water hit Max's cheek. Max opened his eyes and saw the Grim starting to walk away till he vanished in the darkness. Then another drop hit his face.

"_Max!" _a voice called out to him. He quickly realized who was calling him. 'Sheena…' he closed his eyes again for a few seconds, and opened them again slowly to find that he's in the real world.

Max's vision was blurry for a few seconds, when he could see properly, he saw Sheena sitting on her knees next to him with tears rolling down her face. She then attacked him with a soft hug and continued to gently cry on his shoulder. The heavily injured medic was to weak to do anything but to look at the sky.

Sheena then released Max from her hug to wipe the tears off her and smiled, "You had me scared there you know."

"Sorry if I did." Max did a weak smile in return, "that tank wasn't to tuff. If it wanted to kill me the driver would have shot at me, not the building."

Before Fred could come into view and stared down at torn up medic. "Any memory of me in that damaged skull of yours?" he asked in a joking way, Max blacked out.

Mean While… 

"Are we there yet?" Lloyd complained. Kratos and Genis were very annoyed with him; they turned to Lloyd with dreadfully fuming faces.

"Lloyd," Genis began, "I do recall hearing Kratos say that we'll be at Luin Late tonight or tomorrow, and if you keep this up we might get there in a year."

"He's right Lloyd, you're making the trip more difficult for us every day."

Just after Kratos spoke, Colette stopped in front of the, she then pointed her finger at something over the horizon.

"What's that?" she asked. The others looked at what she's pointing to. Black smoke rose to the sky and something was fly around it like moths gathering around a lamb. A code of silence entered the group as they stared at the sight.

"Something's wrong," Raine broke the silence, "that's the same direction to Luin. Lloyd, would it be okay if I could ride on Noishe and go see what's happening?"

The swordsman nodded, "Ok, but I'm coming with you. I'm also curious about it too and it's so boring around here."

The two hopped on Noishe and turned to the others, "We'll be back if it's the Desians, but if it's an aftermath of a attack then we will have to stay and help the best we can." The Professor said.

Kratos, Colette, and Genis nodded and watched them ride off on the oversized canine.

"Now we'll be able to get to Luin without Lloyd annoying us and Raine giving lectures." Genis assumed to the others. "But for Lloyd, he'll be bombarded by my sisters lectures."

Hours Later At Luin…

Sheena, Corrine, and Fred sat outside a medical tent waiting for the news on their dear friend. They tried not to worry about the situation, but how could they when their friend just survived from a building collapsing right on top of him and receiving minor injuries from it.

"How much longer do we have to wait?" Corrine asked

"Well, maybe another hour or so. Don't worry, Max been through this similar shit before, like getting a broken rib from a tank accidentally driving over him and his hand…" Fred paused for the moment when he saw a white speck out in the distance, "what's that?"

Sheena also saw the white speck, as it got closer, it looked like two people riding it. One of them was in a red outfit (Lloyd) and another in an orange and white outfit (Raine). Fred got off the ground and walked to the bridge between the town and the outskirts of Luin.

"Stop," he said putting out a hand, "state your names and business."

Raine jumped off of Noishe first to answer. "I am Professor Raine Sage and this is Lloyd Irving, we saw black smoke coming from here. Was there a battle here?"

"Yeah there was a army of some sort called Desians that attacked here this morning. The UNSC ground force had to clear them out of the town, it was a royal pain in the ass though." The Marine finished.

'The Desians were here?' the two thought shockingly.

When Lloyd remembered the hearing about the UNSC from Max, the way Fred's uniform looked similar, and the M6C pistol in his holster, it hit him, "are you in the same army that Max Demore is in?" he asked.

"Yeah, and I know him. Why do you ask?" Fred said as he raised an eyebrow.

"Do you know where we'll find him?" the marine pointed at a tent with a huge red cross on it and sitting next to the entrance was Sheena and Corrine who was looking at them a few seconds ago. Lloyd was about to say something to the Professor, but when he turned around there was no one there. He looked around him for his teacher and found her staring at rows of five warthogs and a Scorpion Tank (with hearts above her head).

"Professor!" he yelled which made her snap out of her gaze, "I think I know where Max is."

The two walked up to the tent first stopping in front Sheena. The assailant looked up at them. "Are you guys from the chosen's group?" she asked.

"Yes we are." Raine answered, "is our friend Max in there?"

"Yes, but he's being operated right now." Sheena quietly answered.

Lloyd was shocked, "Operated? What happened?"

"A building collapsed on top of him, he managed to get away with extreme wounds."

Hearing this made Lloyd more shocked, "How did the building fall on him!" he yelled.

"Let that answer that for ya." Fred then broke into the conversation. "A while before we found him, I was told that this Desian guys jacked part of our ground convoy. They jacked only two of our Scorpion tanks and some of our equipment. From the looks of the rubble of the building and the black marks on them, the smart bastereds used our own weapons against us."

Lloyd and the Professor silently looked at him…or looking at something behind him.

'That's an extremely big gun-thing he has.' Lloyd thought as he stared at Fred's Sniper Rifle that he swung over his shoulder.

'What does that sign mean by "Highly Explosive" on that table?' Raine looked at a table with piles rocket ammo and grenades.

"Hey! Are you guys even listening to me?" the two snapped out of their world and looked back at him.

Mean While at the Crashed MAC Gun…

"Well General, the location of our lost tank and where the rest of our new threat has been found. They're northeast from the town of Luin, and should be at least eighty miles away from it." The officer said to the General.

"I want a group in there to retrieve that tank tomorrow, I don't want to lose it to a army we don't know much about. And how's our progress on making the bomb to get back to Earth?"

"The scientists had a little accident in the lab so it's going to be another month, and Medical Lieutenant Max Demore is injured, he was in the battle today."

"How was he injured?" the General asked.

"Building collapsed on him, he might need a full week to recover."

"Ok, thank you for informing me, you are dismissed." The officer and the General saluted to each other. After the officer left, a man came running in the room.

"GENERAL!" the soldier yelled as he ran up to him holding out three pictures. "General, we might have a situation, look."

The General took them; his eyes went wide on what he saw. The first picture revealed five Covenant Capital ships, the next showed three of the ships firing at the other two, and the last one only had one of them remaining.

"Where did they come from and why are they shooting at each other?"

"We don't know sir, but what should we do?" the soldier asked.

"It's only one ship, observe it. If it's a threat eliminate it."

"But sir, what if they have that new bomb? We could get it and use it to get home." The General looked at him and thinks. "Well soldier do you have any idea of how are we going to get the bomb?" the marine rolled his eyes, "Um…well…no sir"

"Next time come up with a plan before your suggest something. You're dismissed, now where's my pipe?" 'Maybe I left it back in the cafeteria this morning.'

Late that night in Luin…

Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Raine, Kratos, Sheena, and Fred sat in the lobby all of them talking about today. Hours before, Max came through with his operation, he was carried out of the tent bandaged up and was taken to the Inn that was still standing through the entire battle, and the arrival of the rest of the Chosen's group.

"So does anyone know what's our plan for tomorrow?" Lloyd asked as he fiddled with a twig with his fingers. Everyone looked at him, and Kratos answered, "We should let the Chosen decided."

"Um… well I think we should help the city tomorrow before we do anything else."

"Okay, that's fine by the UNSC. But I have a question." Fred spoke, "Why the hell did these Desian guys attack this place, I mean, every army attacks with a reason."

"I know why." Every one turned to Sheena who was sitting on the couch counting her cards, "Have you heard of the Asgard Ranch northeast of here. The villagers have been hiding some people who escaped there. And… I have a favor to ask, is it possible that you can help me rescue the people there? If you do, I'll call a truce with you."

Lloyd took the time to think for the moment before saying anything, "Ok, we can help you." Everybody except for Fred, Colette, and Kratos were shocked at Lloyd's answer.

"Lloyd, are you sure about this?" Genis asked, "what if she betrays us?"

"Yeah I'm sure, besides if Max trusted her long ago then we should trust her as well."

"I agree with Lloyd, maybe we should help the prisoners at the ranch." Colette said with cheerful tone.

"If the Chosen says it's fine, it's fine. But for now, everyone should get some sleep. I have to be on duty now and it must have been a rough day for some of us." After Fred said what he needed to say, he left the Inn and went to the moat of Luin to guard it for future attacks.

Everyone said their goodnights and left to their rooms. Before Sheena made it to hers, she looked at the door to Max's room. She then felt herself automatically move towards the door and opened it quietly. Viewing the dark room, she saw that the bed with little bloodstains was empty.

"Hey Sheena." Sheena turned her head to the right and found Max sitting down at a table with papers with something drawn on them, and the only light source he had was a candle.

"Hey Max, you should be in bed recovering." Sheena said as she walked up to him and looked down at what he's doing.

"I can't sleep." He answered.

"Why not?"

"It's just…" Max wanted to tell what he saw before he was recovered in the rubble, but he didn't want to talk about it, "no, never mind it's nothing."

"Ok, what are you doing then?" getting a better sight of the papers, there was a sketch of a flower, a beautiful flower. "Wow, that's pretty neat. What kind of flower is it?"

"Poppy Flower, it's flower just like other ones around."

Sheena yawned and rubbed her eyes, "You should teach me how to do this some time, but for now I'm going to bed and you should too, **and** no buts."

Max put down his drawing utensil and stood out of the chair, "Fine, you win. Goodnight Sheena."

"Goodnight Max."

After Sheena left, Max lie down on his bed and looked at the ceiling before he closed his eyes. He tossed and turned trying to find the comfort he was looking for, but couldn't find it.

'Maybe…' he thought as he got out of the bed and came back a few minutes later with a M6C pistol in his good hand. After placing both his hand and gun under the pillow he fell asleep instantly, and this made him feel more secure in his sleep. 'Works all the time.'

'Why does he do that?' and yet Sheena didn't leave entirely, she peered through the keyhole of the door watching the injured medics movement. 'there must be a reason why he does that.'


	8. Mana Carrier definition

Lots of you readers that read the last chapter may not get the beginning of it. Like for instants, "what is a Mana Carrier?" and "why is the Grim Reaper here?" the second question should be obvious from the title, but to answer the first question here is the definition, don't blame me if you still don't get it… and I made the Mana Carrier thing up too.

MANA CARRIER:

HISTORY: a race of man from the Symphonia world that disappeared before the Kharlan war. They created a meteor and traveled into a different dimension reaching a new home called Earth, but they were unaware that their comet carried normal human DNA. When impact, mostly half of the Mana Carriers died and the survivor's hid for centuries about their kind, hide their abilities, and lived among the humans. Many joined armies for their thirst of battle while very few of them lived normal day lives up until the year 2556 AD.

ABILITIES: Mana Carriers abilities can be done well without the use of Exsphares. They can jump three times as high as a normal person, falling from the tallest building in the world but they have to land on their feet like a cat in order to survive the fall without injuries, living forever but they stop aging around their forties and if their half Mana Carrier and half human or elf they can't have this ability, move faster than their opponent when mastered they can move a total of 100 miles an hour, instincts are over the chart, they can heal their wounds when ever they want it to heal all they just need to do is think of it and it will recover the wound less than a minute, and they produce unlimited amounts of Mana.

Well…that pretty much sums it up. If you think these are spoilers then please tell me right away while I'm doing the next chapter.


	9. Tales of Halo CH 21

CH. 21

Unknown Upgrades

"Aw shit, not for a second time?" Max said when he woke up when accidentally firing his gun under his pillow again making a hole in a wall. 'I hope no one heard that. Why am I not feeling sore anymore?' He checked the wound on his chest, but there's appeared to be no wound. "What the hell?"

Seconds later there was a knock on his door followed by a familiar voice, "Max, what the hell you doing in there?"

'Guess someone did.' "Same thing last year Fred. This time I almost shot my god damn ear off." Max walked up to the door and opened it to find his friend smiling. "What's so funny? Oh, the first time I slept with gun under my pillow huh."

"Yeah, you did almost let off your wang though, that was hilarious."

"No it wasn't, anyway did you guys take the city back yesterday?" Max asked.

"Yep, this place might be under UNSC control for awhile before the rightful owners can have it back, but one of the our jacked Tanks went missing after the fight. This morning there was a call for all the military personnel that our vehicle was found in some base northeast from Luin. Later at 1300 hours (1:00 pm) some Marines and I are going to retrieve it. Wish you could come though, but you have to stay, for your wounds."

"Actually…" Max began, "I feel fine."

"What! No way somebody could heal in one night, let me look at one of your wounds." Max took off his bandaged left arm and revealed his long cut that goes from his elbow to the wrist, but…where's the cut? "No… fucking… way. Let me see another one." Showing him another cut, same thing as the first.

"I don't know ether. Let's talk about it later, are the others up yet?"

"Don't know I just came up here to get some sleep. You do know I do night shifts only right?"

"Yeah, you always do. Good morning and good night."

Fred nodded and went to his room. Max walked down stairs to the main floor of the Inn making a stop in the kitchen.

'What should I brew this time? Pancakes? No. Hash Browns and eggs.'

Some time later up stairs, Corrine sniffed the air that woke him and he got to his feet. Devoid of waking Sheena, he left the room and made his way down to the kitchen quietly. 'What's that delicious smell?' he thought as he peered into the kitchen to find Max at the wooden stove catering something in a frying pan.

'God damn, if my wounds healed in a single night then that really does mean I'm a Mana Carrier, how the hell am I going to deal with this?' Max thought, 'I mean… how bizarre can it get? Something's behind me isn't there?' slowly turning his head, he saw Corrine sitting on a table with dish's already out. 'I even have first-rate instincts, I'm like… God or something.' "Good morning Corrine, is anybody up yet?"

"Nope, but your cooking could wake them some time soon like me." Corrine then jump off the table and landed on Max's shoulder, "from the looks of it, you seem fully healed. I thought it would take time to heal."

"You know, I thought so too. Is it possible to…" then Max was interrupted be the sound of footsteps of four people move about hastily above them.

"Oh never mind. The others are here to right?" Corrine nodded at his question, "Ok, I'm going to guess that it's Genis, Colette, Lloyd, and Raine, and it sounds like Lloyd and Colette are going neck to neck in first place." Then another pair of footstep caused more commotion above but this one was going twice as fast then the others. "On second thought, Sheena took the lead. Gosh… is my cooking truly that excellent?"

"How are you so sure it's them? It could be Kratos in front and Raine and Genis tying for second." Corrine said into Max's ear,

"Don't be to sure about that, besides here they come now."

Minute later, Sheena arrived at the table covered with sweat and was huffing like crazy. "Hey Sheena, how are you this morning."

"I should ask you the same thing, are you good enough to be up and about? You should be in bed on the road to recovery." She said when taking a seat at the table.

"I'm fine, just calm down and have something to eat." Max served the food to her right about matching time when Lloyd and Colette came in the room both of them with bed head and some bruises.

"Did you two get those from sleeping or falling down the stairs?" Sheena asked.

"Both…" the two of them said in unison, Max just chuckled and brought some more plates of food to the table. Suddenly, Raine, Genis, and Kratos showed up in the room in a blink of an eye with eyes wide and smelling the air.

"Sit. Eat. Ease down. I made enough for everyone."

Everybody took the weight off your feet at the table chatting about the plot of the Asgard Ranch. "I might have a idea, but I don't know if we have enough time to do it though."

"Go ahead and say it Max, we can take it." Lloyd said as he stuffed his mouth with egg.

"I heard that some UNSC Marines are going to slip in the Desian base somewhere near here today and get the our tank back. I was thinking that I should talk with the leader of the operation and see if he can give us some time to try and capture a Desian. After we do that we cross-examine him for information." Max then took a small bite of his food before continuing, "We'll get info on the base, man in charge, how many Desians there are, and a stealthy way of getting in."

"Good idea, but Max how are we going to grab hold of one if they're in or extremely near the base?" Raine stated, "It would be almost impossible."

"What if," Sheena cut in, "we get their uniforms and infiltrate their base? Besides, I got one right here." She then took out a piece of clothing of a female Desian spearman.

Max then thought about that, it sounded better then his plan. "On second thought, that is a better idea. Think about it, some of us will disguise as the Desians, the rest of the group will be the prisoners and we all will get into the Ranch easily."

"That plan's ok too but where are we going to get more outfits?" then everyone focused their attention to the window seeing a marine carrying a dead Desian on his back over to a pile of other dead enemies.

"That's our answer. Finish up your meal guys, we got a messy job after this."

An Hour Later…

"Hey…no fair Max, why can't I be a Desian?" Lloyd complained for the billionth time.

Max was on the radio talking to the General and turned to him with a serious face like if he was about to shoot him in the foot. "Listen Lloyd, two of the only outfits we found that didn't have bloodstains and bullet holes can merely fit Kratos and Raine, so deal with it."

Sheena, Raine and Kratos came down the stairs in their disguises. (A.N. I know what you're thinking in the game it was only Sheena and Raine that wore the outfits, but what's the matter of adding one more?) Everyone looks at them and gave them the thumbs up telling them "it looks great on you" sign.

Max put down his radio and walked up to the group with the announcement. "Ok, I've talked to the General, he was a little shocked too that I was out of bed early. Anyway, he says that we all have today and tomorrow to get our mission completed before he sends a bunch of Marines in to get our tank back and decimate the place. Any questions before we move out?"

Each person looked at each other before they shuck their heads, "Alright, there's a Pelican Drop ship waiting for us outside Luin. We'll just hop on one and fly there and…"

"Wait!" the entire group turned towards the stairs and saw Fred running and falling down it. "Max, the only action I was in was yesterday and I heard your entire plan from up stairs, so I was thinking of coming with you guys for sniper support. What do you all think?"

"Fine you can come, but don't give us away to the Desians, if you do… I'll just cut your nose off with a scalpel and make you the next Michael Jackson. Clear?"

Fred went wide-eyed on what he just heard, "Whoa, that's like the third threat you said to me ever since we joined the UNSC."

"You know what, you're our wasting day light. Let's get moving." Everyone walked out of the inn to the landing area for a ride, with some stares from Marines and other military personnel.

Later near the Asgard Ranch…

"When will we get to ride the Pelican Drop Ship again!" Raine was so excited after the ride. During the ride she asked Max, Fred, and the pilot some many questions that it made this trip of theirs awfully bad. For example, making the pilot fly north instead of northeast and almost crashing into the Tower of Mana.

"Later Raine, after we get out alive that is." Max's radio crackled a bit then came Fred's voice on the other line, "I'm in position, I got a good view of the entrance and the inside of the base. Also get a load of this I can see our tank from here… what the hell are they doing to it?"

Max lifted an eyebrow then responded, "What? What are they doing to it?"

"I don't know but they're changed the armor on top of the treads to blue armor, and looks like computer technology. Who the hell would use computer armor? Ner…" then the line was quiet for a few second till the medic spoke. "Fred, what's the matter? Speak up man speak up. "

"You're not going to believe this… at least ten of the guards on the walls of the base have battle rifles."

Lloyd looked at Max who was holding the radio, "Hey Max, how did the Desians get a hold of army weapons?"

"I don't know, hey Fred is there anything odd about the guns?" Max spoke into the radio.

"Yeah there is, the bullet clips are blue and have computer like device just like the tank. If I were going to make a guess, it would seem that they've been doing some kind of unknown upgrades."

"Thanks for informing us, we're moving in now over and out." Max put away his radio and turned to the others, "Ok, Genis, Colette, Lloyd and I will put cuffs on now and be the prisoners, Sheena you get to hold onto my guns but what ever you do don't pull the triggers."

Sheena nodded and took both of Max's SMG and M6C, but she noticed there was a weapon missing, "Max, what about your sword thing?"

"Oh that, I'm going to hide it in one of my pockets just incase if something goes wrong." Max answered almost in a cheerful way. The allied ninja was a little shocked of his tone, it was the first time she ever saw him like this.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked.

"Of course I'm okay, if I wasn't I would still be in bed back in Luin. Now let's get this mission underway then." (In military slang terms, begin the mission.)

The group started their approach on the gate of the ranch, while Fred observed them from the tallest tree nearby with his S2 AM Sniper Rifle. Two of guards at the entrance saw them and put up their hands making the group come to a halt.

"Halt, show us your identification and code number." One of the guards said as the other one tightened his grip on the handle of his sword.

'Shit! Did we really need identification? This plan could go straight down the drain!" Max was about to panic on the situation until…

"We caught them!" Raine announced, "The wanted criminals Lloyd Irving, the Chosen of Mana, and the man that uses these so called weapons, guns. We would like to turn them in personally."

"You're right! You did capture the wanted criminals including the Chosen! Yes of coarse, go on in and later we must have a drink with you and your comrade's victory today. Do not forget to take those guns to the armory to have a mana clip put in them." the guards opened the gate allowing them to enter to base.

'That looked so fucking easy.' Fred thought after he saw the whole event and watched them go inside. 'Maybe this mission might pull through after all.'

After entering and going through the door to their left. The group walked into an empty room with many computers that was unknown to Max and no guards. Raine nodded to the rest of the team and began to release Lloyd, Max, Colette, and Genis from their cuffs. Then Kratos, the Professor, and Sheena changed back to their normal clothes tossing the Desian uniforms in a trash disposal.

Then something caught Lloyd's eye. He walked up to a large window followed by Genis, and Colette. "That must be the room where Exsphares are made." Raine stated as she browsed the computers on the room.

"These are all Exsphares? Incredible!" Lloyd felt excited that he focused his attention only to the window while every one else looked for a computer that could give them a map of the base.

Colette stopped in the middle of her search as she heard something coming from room next door. (Yeah I know what you all thinking it's her Angel senses.) "Shhhh, I think I hear something coming from the next room."

Everybody stopped on what they were doing and looked at Colette. Max focused on the same door to and heard footsteps of three people running towards them.

"We should get ready and see who comes." The medic suggested. The door opened for 2 Desians and the same man (Botta) that Lloyd and Max encountered in Triet Desert.

"It's you!" Max, Lloyd, and Botta yield as they got their weapons out at the ready.

"Lord Botta, this is our chance." One of the Desians whispered to Botta.

"Are you looking for a fight?" Kratos walked forward with one hand on the handle of his sword.

"Wait, Kratos is with them and that man too." The lead Desian stated to his bodyguards.

Lloyd was a little shocked, "You two know each other?"

"If you mean that we encountered them in the Triet desert before then yes."

"Wait a second Kratos," Max said, "You weren't even there to see this guy. How can you possibly know one another?"

"It would be best not to fight here." Kratos looked back at him just ignoring Max's question.

"Do as you wish." Botta and the other Desians ran around the group to the door behind them. The door opened giving a shock to the group as three Desians Started casting and shooting fireballs out at Colette and Kratos.

Kratos managed to block the flaming balls of death by using guardian, which protected him and Colette. "Colette! Kratos!" Lloyd yelled as he ran over to them.

"I'm okay." The chosen said as she dusted off some black marks on her clothes.

"Aw shit, every one six o'clock (behind us)!" Max barked as he aimed his SMG at another intruder. Every one turned around and saw a man in a blue outfit with gold shoulder plates and his whitish blond hair pulled back.

"Well, I thought I heard some Renegade rats infiltrated the facility, but I never thought it would be the chosen's group." The man announced as he moved closer to a hidden alarm on the wall.

"Who the fuck are you?" Max demanded.

"That's Kvar, one of the five grand Cardinal." Kratos informed.

"Ah, I see that some of you know who I am." Colette then threw one of her chakrams at their enemy making him dodge to the side away from the alarm.

"Good job Colette, ok let's get out of here. Through that door." Every one nodded to Lloyd and ran out of the room to the Exsphare room. Running past conveyer belts and eliminating enemies along the way till the party came to a dead end. In front of them was a glass window with people riding conveyer belt and on the exit of it were containers full of Exsphares.

"What the hell's is this?" Max questioned as Kvar approached them from behind with dozens of Desian henchman armed with whips and swords.

"This is where the Exsphares are removed from the host's body." Most of the party was shocked except for Max who still doesn't understand what exactly an Exsphare is.

Raine was a little confused, "are you saying the Exsphares are made from human lives?"

"Yes, why else do we waist time harvesting you pathetic beings."

"That's terrible!" Genis said.

"Terrible? Terrible is what you done. Stealing and using Exsphares that we spent on so much to create them." he then saw Lloyd and his Exsphare on the back of his hand and quickly remembered it, "that Exsphare is no doubt part of my Angelus Project, if it wasn't for that woman that stole it, but she paid for it with her life."

"What woman? You don't mean…" Lloyd was now learning that history of the Exsphare.

"That Exsphare was on host body 2401(don't blame me if I can't remember the numbers), name Anna, your mother." Kvar informed.

Lloyd was on the brink of going berserk, "You killed my…!"

"Now now, don't blame us. Your father was the one that killed her, blame him."

"LAIR!" the swordsman yelled.

"Don't speak ill amongst the dead." Kratos said next, but hearing this made Max think, 'Is Kratos involved with any of this?'

"Ha Ha Ha, who cares? As long as retrieve that Exsphare from you I would become one of the five Seraphim. Get them." The Desian henchmen moved in on the group but Sheena walked forward taking out a green spellcard.

"I'll handle this." She looked down at the card in her hand and whispered, "I'm using the last one grandpa." Then the card was used. Some creature appeared, it had the head of a bird and the rest of it looked like a spirit's body. Then every one vanished before the Desians.

"They Disappeared! Your orders sir?" the Desians waited for the word.

"Let them go. Our friend will tell us where they're at."

Outside the Desian Base…

"That was a particularly close one. What did you just do Sheena?" the female ninja looked at the Max to answer, " I used one of my last guardian cards. You should be glad that it got us all out of the base."

"Um, what about those guys?" every one saw Genis point up and looked in the same direction he was pointing in. Four Desians armed with battle rifles took aim at them and started firing. To Max's surprise, in stead of bullets coming at them, blue lights shot out hitting the medics SMG burning it in half.

Max took out his M6C to fire back at the attackers and yelled, "let's get going!" he then turning on his radio to call his friend, "Fred, get out of the tree and meet us at the EVAC point ASAP."

The other end of the line crackled before a voice came out, "I would have to agree cause these guys are bringing out the big gun. I'll distract it for a little bit and meet you a the objective point." Fred took aim with his Sniper Rifle a released a bullet. Then something came unexpectedly to him, the bullet bounced off in another direction before it could even hit the tank. 'What the hell?' he fired three more rounds and the same thing happened. Although, the forth bullet created a little wave on the invisible shield and revealed a bubble surrounding the vehicle. 'Screw this!' the marine jumped off the branch he was sitting on, landed in a bush, and started running.

"There's the ship. Pile on." The Chosen's group got on the drop ship that was waiting for them without hesitation. Before they could go anywhere, they had to wait for Fred. 'Where the hell is he?'

Without notice, Fred got on the ship gasping for air and yelling at the pilot, "Go! Go! Fly the fuck out of here! For god's sake fly us back to that Luin place."

The pilot confirmed and took the ship into the air away from the ranch and when the tank came into view. "Max, do you think these guys used some kind of alien upgrade or something else?"

"Maybe. But where did they get the guns?" He answered.

Raine came up between them and looked out at the same direction the ranch was, "I never knew Desians could apply Magitechnology with your military hardware, very interesting."

The two UNSC soldiers looked at her puzzled, "what did you say?"


	10. Tale of Halo CH 22

CH. 22

Plan 2: 1

In the dead of night, the Chosen's group and the two UNSC soldiers gathered around the campfire next to the in ruined fountain on the west side of Luin. Most of the group held their Exsphares in their hands looking down on them and recalled what they saw and heard today.

"I can't believe that Exsphares are made of human lives." Sheena spoke first before Genis.

"This is Marble's life."

Lloyd then yanked out his Exsphare that he had on the back of his hand with anger, "Grrrr! This…thing!"

"Lloyd, what will you accomplish by taking that off?" Colette asked.

"But these things are just a human mockery."

"And?" Kratos cut in, "would those people that didn't want to be turned into Exsphares would want to be thrown away."

"I know that but…"

"Kratos is right. You can't just toss those away. Who knows if those things could still have a living soul inside them? I heard from Genis and Colette that your Exsphare was your mother's, right? You just can't give up on her like that, it could carry her hopes and dreams." Max stated.

The swordsman felt a little shocked at Max's sayings and looked at the rest of the group, "You…you're right. I hate to say this but you're all right. We just can't have people be turned into these stones. Like I said before, 'I will destroy them all."

Fred shuck head and placed his hands out in front of him, "Settle down there kid. Don't go all kamikaze on these Desian basterds right now. Besides, who knows how big their numbers are. Which comes to mind that the enemy could of increased security at their base. It might be impossible to get in there now."

Raine then shot her head up with a solution, "I heard a rumor that a man broke away from the ranch almost two weeks ago. He should be in Hima."

"I know that guy!" Sheena bellowed, "His name's Pietro, I helped him get away from some Desians that were pursuing him. But after that, he became very ill, let's just hope he's still alive."

"Ok then, we'll start early tomorrow morning. So I would suggest getting some sleep now. I'm off to night duty again." Fred walked off to the same place last night for his job. The party walked to the inn, said their good nights and went to their rooms again.

Max walked into the room and observed it. There was a single bed, a table, and window that lead's to the roof, and some boxes full of UNSC equipment. 'This room seems ok.'

He began to take off his Medical Combat uniform until he was wearing boxers and tank top, both black. After that, he laid the outfit on the table, but something caught his eye on the floor. It was blue, rectangular, and was made of paper. It was a water spellcard… Sheena's spellcard.

'This must have been Sheena's bedroom last night. Better return this to her before she goes to sleep.' He puts on some pants and opened the door to his room but he accidentally swung the door on a person.

"Ouch…"

"Sorry sir I…" Max looked down at the person he accidentally knocked over and saw he was in a purple outfit and had somewhat of blood red hair, Kratos. "Sorry about that Kratos I didn't see you there, you ok?"

"Yes I am." The mercenary got to his feet and dusted himself off, "Where are you going?"

Max held up a spellcard in his hand and answered, "Sheena left her spellcard in the room she was in last night. I'm on my way to return it to her. Where were you going?"

"The out house. Please excuse me." Kratos then walked off in a fast pace. Max just stood where he was and started walking in the direction to Sheena's room. The moment he reached the door, there was a ruffling sound coming from the other side. He knocked the door three time's, there was an answer, "come in!"

Max came into the room to find Sheena on her hands and knees looking for something. "What are you doing? Looking for a contact lens?"

Sheena looked up at him with confusion, "what's a contact lens?"

"Oh…that's right, the people of this world don't have that kind of stuff. What are you really looking for? A spellcard?" Sheena nodded her head and looked at him again, but then she noticed what he said. "How do you know it's one of my spellcards?"

Max held up a blue card in his hand and put a smile on his face, "you left it in the room you slept in last night. Here you go." Sheena stood up and took the spellcard from his hand and put it back with her collection of cards in her ninja-kimono like outfit.

"Thanks, I thought I lost it back at the Desian base today." Max nodded back as a 'you're welcome'. He turned to the door and was about to walk out till…

"Hey Max," the medic stopped in his track and turned around to the speaker. "This has been nagging me a lot, I just want to ask you is that where are you actually from?"

'I thought it might come out of me when they ask specifically. But what should I say about the Mana Carrier thing? Maybe I should leave that out and talk about home, but still I might make it difficult to say.' "All I can say is that my home is really far away and there's a war being fought there right now. I wish I could say more but this might be UNSC secret info to this world."

Sheena was puzzled, "Are… you and the army not from Sylvarant?" Max nodded his head, "are you from… Tethe'alla?"

"Never heard of it, and no I'm not from there ether." 'Maybe dad was.'

"I see, well I guess this is good night then. See you tomorrow." 'A third world? I thought there were only two?'

"Yep, goodnight." Max walked out the door to his room to get some shuteye, after he left Sheena stood in the same place and kept staring at the door.

Out from nowhere came Corrine's voice, "You like him don't you?" Sheena turned to him with her eyes wide and started to blush. "You do like him. That's good. Some one better then Zelos for you right?"

The ninja stumbled a bit, "What! No, I like him as…a friend."

"Riiiiight." Corrine said rolling his eyes.

"Stop it!"

Early morning next day…

"Ok every one, sorry for the little wake up call earlier then you expected, but we have only today to do this mission. I called for a drop ship last night to get us to Hima. I got word that there are going to be lots of people there that are from Luin. Before we start, are there any questions?" Half of the chosen's group stared at Max like as if they want to kill him for waking them up at five-thirty in the morning.

"Ok then I'll take that as a no, let's get going."

"Max!" the medic turned to Genis who actually had his hand up for a while.

"Oh, didn't see your hand there, yes?"

"What about that huge tank thing? What are we going to do about that? It might be impossible to destroy with a bubble around it." The party started to realize that also, then every body put their hand up about that situation.

"Alright! Hands down, if the upgrades to our tank gave it strength there can be a weakness to it. I'll explain about it once we get to the ship or you can sleep on it."

1 Hour Later Outside Hima…

The Chosen's group laid on the grass with white face's after the flight. This time, Raine almost made the ship collide into another one, but dodged it by 2 cm… pretty shocking isn't it?

"Raine… you better start running before I go get a Shotgun from the armory… starting now." Before Max could even lean up, Lloyd and Genis had to tackled him making sure he couldn't reach for his pistol or any other weapon he might have on him like his energy sword.

Minutes later after Max calmed down, the group made their way up the hill to Hima's inn where Pietro is. The moment they reached the top of the road, there were lots of people that were from Luin. Pitching up tents or something they could use for shelter and in line for receiving food from a UNSC service tent.

"Would you look at that, the UNSC must be doing a lot to help out the people in need." Genis stated, "Where do these guys get the supplies to help others?"

"I don't know but I think their are really nice at a time like this." Colette said happily.

"Sheena!" the ninja and the medic turned to the voice that came from the front of the inn and saw a group of children running towards them. The herd of munchkins then tackled Sheena making her fall forward. Quickly reacting, Max walked up in front of her and caught her, but the force made him take small steps in the same direction his friend was falling.

Looking down, Max saw another kid bent down on the ground on all fours behind him, "oh no…" loosing balance, he was tripped over along with Sheena and landed hard on his back.

"That was close. Thanks." Sheena spoke trying to hide her small blush after noticing how close she was to Max.

"Close for you, but a little hard for me." The two got to their feet while being watched by the children from the orphanage. "And for you kids, that was way to-", Max was about to finish but a little girl came up to them with a doll in her hands and pointed a finger at him. "Sheena is that your boyfriend?"

Sheena began to blush heavily at the question and could barely answer, "he…he's not…re-really…my…"

"Hey kids look a bear!" Max blurted out pointing up the path to the top of Hima, "Take my friend Fred here along with you and chase it!" he then reached out and grabs Fred's shoulder making him completely lost.

"What?"

"Time's wasting, I need you to be a distraction for these kids. We'll come find you when we're done… if you're still alive that is." Max then pushed Fred up the path and the group of orphans started chasing him, "You owe me one next time you hear me! Owe me one!"

The medic shrugged, "I do recall me telling you that when I saved you from getting court-martialed so I say we're even, and don't teach these kids learn new words, you got that?"

After Fred and the children were out of sight, Sheena and Max relaxed and Sheena was just relieved that the orphans were unharmed. She turned to him smiling, "I think I owe you one."

The medic shook his head, "you don't owe me anything."

"Hello Lieutenant, nice seeing you here." Max twirled a one-eighty and not noticed that he blocked Sheena's view of the person past her friend. She saw him bring his right hand up to his forehead and brought it back down. Peering over his shoulder, there was an old man in his late fifties and was dressed in a formal-military outfit.

"Hello General, pleasure seeing you here." Max replied.

"I'm just out for a nice warm walk here exploring the people of this world while a problem might also occur. How's you mission coming son? You do have until tonight before operation begins." General Hoth then saw Sheena looking at him, "Who's your friend?"

"Oh," he stepped to the side to show the general, "this is Sheena…" he paused for a moment confused and forgotten something, "Sheena, did you ever tell me you last name?"

"Did I?"

"I don't think so."

"It's Fujibayashi."

Max snapped a finger on getting Sheena's full name, "Sheena Fujibayashi, she joined the Chosen's group a few days ago and met her a few days after arrival…wait, did you say that we might have another problem?"

"Yes but we have to speak this in private."

"I see sir, Sheena go meet the others at the inn and talk to this guy without me. I'll meet you there when I'm done." Sheena nodded and left, "Ok, what is it?"

The General put his pipe in his mouth before he began, "on the day the Desians attacked Luin, UNSC MAC Station 372 spotted and reported five Covenant Capital Ships orbiting the moon shooting at each other. So now there's one left."

Max went wide-eyed on hearing the Covenant was in the same dimension they're in. "How the hell did the Covenant know we were here? And why were they firing at each other?"

"I don't know how, but we think that they could have that 100rCN."

"100rCN?"

"It stands for 100 radius Covenant Nuke. Like I was saying, if they have that bomb, then we could use it to get back to our world and get back to fighting the Covenant." He took a deep breath from his pipe and exhaled the smoke, "before we could think of doing that, we have to figure out why they were shooting at each other."

"That is the confusing part. You think a ship should be checked out?"

Hoth shook his head, "No, I won't risk a life or two to recon it, we observe it first from the MAC Guns."

Max summed up what the big chief was saying and came in with an answer, "You mean wait to see if they strike first?"

Hoth shook his head a second time and stopped to think, "that, and watch if they're a threat."

"But aren't the Covenant always a threat? What makes you so sure they'd would change sides?"

"Hey Max! Are you done yet?" The lieutenant curved his head to the side and saw Genis and Lloyd calling out for him, "we're done visiting, come on! We got something that might help."

"Hang on, I'll be there in a minute." Turning back to the general, "Before I get going sir, here…" Max held out two video chips and gave it to Hoth, "we hit a little problem ourselves yesterday, you should watch and listen to these immediately, it's Fred's Helmet Cam chip and the recording chip from my earpiece radio."

"I will, dismissed." Max and Hoth saluted and went separate ways. Max walked back to Genis and Lloyd, while General Hoth entered the passenger seat of a Warthog and left to the crashed MAC gun.

"Who was that old man you were talking too Max?" Lloyd asks while doodling with what seems to be a small rock in his hands.

"That was General Hoth, he's in charge of this part of the UNSC fleet." Max replied.

"That's the leader of the army you're in? I thought the Generals would look strong and young but I didn't think they would be old men."

Max Shrugged, "well, at least I know how confused you must be on hardly knowing anything about the UNSC." He looked at the strange rock that Lloyd was still fiddling with in his hands, "What's that rock you got there? A souvenir?"

"No, it's a Desian Orb, we found it with Pietro's belongings. He also said that the way he got out was behind some huge rock. Was there a rock outside the ranch?" Max and Genis thought for a moment trying to remember.

Then it hit them and the two spoke in unison, "I do recall seeing one."

"Lloyd! Genis! Did you two get Max? Me, Raine, Colette, and Kratos found Fred hanging from the side of the hill getting beat to death by the kids from earlier so…" the three turned and saw Sheena walking up to them, she saw Max and was interrupted by him.

"What was that about Fred being Piñata Man again? I could have swore that you said something about munchkins beating him to a pulp till sweets started pouring out of him." Sheena, Lloyd, and Genis broke out laughing, Genis laughed so hard that he fell to the ground and Sheena laughed hard till she cried a bit.

When the group reassured down and the rest of the party was reunited, they walked down the hill of Hima to the same Pelican Drop Ship they rode earlier. On the way, Sheena started to remember the little girl question, "Sheena, is that your boyfriend?" She blushed a bit just thinking about it.

'Why can't I get that question out of my head?' she thought, 'he's the only one I know more then any one else in this group, he helped me by fixing my wounds and I can't believe that I still remember what I thought about him when we part ways in Luin weeks ago and how worried I was when finding out he had a building fall on him. Still, we're just friends right? Damn it Corrine! Why did you have to ask that question last night?'

"Hey Sheena watch where you're…" Max's voice broke her chain of thoughts and yet it was to late for her to react so she ended up walking into the side of the drop ship, "…walking… are you ok? I thought you ninjas could avoid walking into anything?"

Sheena steadied her self and ran up to Max with full agility in less than a second, "how did you know that I did ninja style fighting? I never told you or the others."

"The way you're dressed. Looks almost ninja style or Asian clothing. Are you sure you're ok?"

"Tsk…Yes, I'm fine."

Later at the Asgard Ranch…

The party began at the same area they were in yesterday and started searching for a big bolder. "Found it!" Fred cried out as every one circled the rock.

"Seems pretty big. I don't how some one would be able to move a rock this big to get out. It would be impossible." Lloyd stated, Raine then pushed the swordsmen forward

, "Well then Lloyd, you'll be our first volunteer to push it out of the way for us."

"Fine." He put both hands and pushed the rock with all of his strength, but the bolder didn't budge. "It's no good, it won't budge."

"Let's try the Desian orb now." The professor walked up beside Lloyd and placed the orb on a sartent spot on the bolder. To their amazement, the bolder started moving on its own to the side revealing an entrance that goes directly under the Desians noses.

"That's weird," Lloyd began, "it didn't move a inch when I tried."

Max then switched on his radio to the UNSC channel to give the news to command, "Hello? Operator? Are you there? This is Medical Lieutenant Max De…ARGH!" the group jumped at Max's shout as he quickly takes out his tiny headset.

"Max, are you ok? What's wrong?" Colette asked.

"I'm fine, it's just a feedback." He answered. The entire party didn't know what he meant by feedback. Again for the second time, the look on their face's except Fred's were in great confusion.

"What's a feedback?" they all asked.

"Feedback is something that would happen when you use a radio and receive static and/or a different line of somebody's conversation." Then, a voice came out of the earpiece radio, "seems like somebody's talking. Fred, turn on your radio so we all can hear it."

"Way ahead of ya." The marine turned on his radio that was attached to his shoulder loud enough for them to listen. First there was static coming from it till a conversation of two people beginning to talk.

"Pronyma, the reason why I want to talk with you immediately because I want to ask you a few question regarding to the Mana Cannon and the Mana Clip prototypes you made a while back."

"Go on."

"Hey," Lloyd began, "isn't that that Kvar guy from yesterday? Who's he talking too?"

"Shh, save it for the end." Raine demanded.

"The Mana clips for these so called guns you found is draining too much mana from my men from each shot they fire. I already have the ten guards from yesterday weak in bed recovering. Can you adjust it so it won't take to much?"

"Yes. You'll have them updated in three days, they'll be less powerful but handy."

"Good and now I have something I would mostly want to discus about the Mana…" the radio crackled loud and wildly till a different voice came, "Hello LT? Respond if you can hear me. Private, increase the reception."

Max snapped back to his radio and took over, "Hey Specialist, I can hear you now, can you link me to General Hoth? It's urgent."

"Sure hold on a second." Then the radio crackled some more, "Hello?"

"General, we found a way into the Desian ranch without getting detected, we might catch them at a weak moment. Did you see those chips we gave you?" Max asked waiting for a response.

"Yes I have. The Desians must be trouble here. I'll send in a ground force that will be at you position in the next hour to attack the enemy. No air support till all the prisoners are out. And please, hold your current position."

"We don't have an hour sir, we caught our target off guard now can't you send them faster?"

"We're moving as fast as we can at the moment, if the convoy doesn't arrive in the next fifteen minutes, star without us but don't get yourself killed ok."

"Yes sir, over and out." The medic turned his radio off and didn't even notice that the party's been staring at him since he's been talking. "Ok here's the plan…"

A.N. Voting time again readers, this time the question is "should I put in the cool stuff that were cut out of the Halo series? Like the flamethrower, ATV, Silencer attachment to SMG, different versions of the Warthog, etc."

Yes

Or

No

Deadline's July 6 2006.


	11. Forth of July Bonus Chapter!

Tales of Halo

4th of July Special

(Cut out the action/adventure and Sci-fi and replace it with Humor.

This is just a bonus chapter, not part of the story.)

Author: "Hi every one! I'm Psycho Grant author of Tales of Halo. It's forth of July today and I decided to have the characters of Tales of Halo take a break and go out for some fun!"

Fred: "You're damn right! I'm going to get the beer at the nearest Bar and chug!"

Psycho Grant: "Yeah go ahead and drink, I don't give shit if you're drunk. As long as Max is driving back, I feel completely safe."

Lloyd: "where are we going to celebrate forth of July?"

Max: "I think we should go to New Waikiki in Hawaii, I heard they got a new club there for us all to go to and it's right next to a beach."

Sheena: "Who should we invite?"

Psycho Grant: "Good question, let's see… Regal says he's got paper work, Presea's out lumberjacking, we should not invite Zelos cause he can't hold his alcohol and he'll sleep with at least a dozen hookers, the Master Chief can come since the Covenant war is over, Sgt. Johnson and Captain Keyes are attending a funeral of Keyes's father, and last the whereabouts of the Arbiter are unknown."

Raine: "Aww, I was really looking forward of asking questions and examining him."

Genis: "I think the real reason why the Elites are hiding are because of you sis."

Fred: "Yeah I think so too."

Whack!

Genis: "OW!"

Fred: "OW! Goddamn it!"

Max: "I'll go get the bandages and painkillers."

Sheena: "I got the ice."

Both Max and Sheena went different ways to get stuff for Fred and Genis while Kratos took Raine into the other room to calm her leaving Colette, Lloyd, and I left to do nothing, except to announce something.

Psycho Grant: "Don't you guys think Max and Sheena make a great couple?"

Colette: "I think Raine and Kratos make a excellent couple also. What do you think Lloyd?"

Lloyd: "It's ok I think?"

As time past, Max and Sheena came back into the room with tons of items they needed for their patients. After they were done, they crashed on a nearby couch sitting really close to each other.

Psycho Grant: "okay then, here's the plan everyone" the group stared at me waiting for the schedule, "we'll go to the club in Hawaii, watch the fireworks, and party till we're wasted."

Genis: "When do we go?"

Psycho Grant: "Immediately, pack you partying clothes now ya'll, Fred go get Kratos and the Professor."

Fred: "Gotcha!" he walked over to the door and opened it, he was shocked at what he's just seeing, "Holy Mother F! What the hell are you two doing! At least save what your doing tonight!"

Everyone including me, peered over Fred's shoulder with our eyes wide and jaws down at the sight. They were about to…

Hours Later at Waikiki Hawaii…

Max: "Well, here's the club I told you guys about. It's on the top floor of this building."

The party looked up at the hundred and twenty floor building, it was damn big.

Fred: "What about the Bouncer?"

Max: "I know the guy, he should let us in." Max walked forward up to the bouncer and took over, "Hey Momo, what up?"

Bouncer: "Max! Brother from another mother! Haven't seen you in awhile, what's happen 'n?" the two did a secret handshake.

Max: "just here to celebrate Independence Day with some friends. You think you can let us in later tonight to see the light show?"

Bouncer: "Sure! Come back in the next two hours and I'll let ya'll in!"

Psycho Grant: "Yes!"

Lloyd: "Alright!"

Colette: "This will be fun!"

Genis: "Nice"

Raine: "Brilliant!"

Kratos: "…"

Sheena: "Oh yeah!"

Fred: "Hell 'a sweet!"

Max: "Trillion thanks amigo!"

Psycho Grant: "Ok now, let's split and meet back here later dressed in our party outfits."

More time passes…

We all made back on time in our picked clothes, I was wearing a beanie, oversized coat, black T-shirt, camouflage cargo-pants, and black street-wear shoes.

Lloyd came wearing a red baseball cap, red T-shirt, red swimming trunks filled with illegal fireworks, and red Vans shoes.

Colette tide her hair in a ponytail, wore a large, white tank top, baggy blue jeans and flip –flops.

Genis had a blue long sleeved shirt on, blue cargo shorts, and white sneakers, and his older sister Raine came in orange and black bathing suit and plane light orange shorts.

Kratos just wore a black tank top, black paints, and black sneakers.

Sheena's outfit… well… it almost gave all the guys on the team a little nosebleed, she was wearing the swimming suit from the "Queen of the Beach" title, wore really, really, really short blue jeans with it, and sandals.

Beside her was Max wearing a white baseball cap, white T-shirt, white coat, artic camouflage cargo-pants, and yet again white shoes.

And last Fred is wearing gangster clothing… a really crappy way of wearing it.

Kratos: "I think we're all accounted for. Where's the Master Chief?"

Fred: "Oh don't worry, he'll be here."

At that very moment, a Warthog came screeching to a halt in front of us with the Master Chief in it…then just randomly he flipped a switch and his ride started using hydraulics. We were shocked and confused.

Everyone Thinks: 'How the hell do you give Warthogs Hydraulics?'

MC (Master Chief): "Sorry to keep you all waiting. Some Grunts and Hunters challenged me to a Beer Drinking Contest. One of those little bastereds actually beat me, but the Hunters got drunk easily after their first cup from a shot glass."

Kratos: "Aren't the Hunters suppose to be able to hold more then a shot glass?"

Max: "You're judging them by their size Kratos. It's on how their body functions work. Anyway, let's PARTY!"

The moment we entered the club, the party began to separate. Sheena grabbed Max's hand and went to the dance floor, same thing went for Colette grabbing Lloyd's also going to the same place, Raine and Kratos went to walk on the beach, Fred went to the bar to drink, MC decided to spin at the DJ booth to make the party wilder, and that leaves only me and Genis.

Psycho Grant: "Well Genis, what do you want to…" out of the blue, some one with pink hair walked past me and ran off with Genis, "…do?" it didn't take long to realize who it was. 'Presea actually came? That's a surprise.' I shrugged and walked over to a table.

Psycho Grant: 'I guess I'll just sit here and enjoy a cup of Coke.'

Sheena: "Grant! (hic)" I turned my head to find Sheena, an extremely drunk Sheena, "What are you (hic) sitting here alone all (hic) by yourself?"

Psycho Grant: "Sheena, are you drunk?"

Sheena: "Maybe…(hic). I challenged Max to a Drinking Contest (hic)…and I (hic) won. "

Psycho Grant: "I turn my back for five minutes and you're already drunk. Where's Max?"

Sheena: "Restroom…you know (hic) you look kind a cute when you're not drunk (hic)"

Psycho Grant: "I don't drink, what the?" then the drunk attacked me by putting her arm around my neck and trying to force a can of Budlight in my mouth. Yet, she was successful. I felt my chest burning and then my vision went blurry to black.

Lloyd: "Grant! Hey Grant Wake up!" I opened my eyes and Lloyd, Colette, and Genis hovering over me, all three of them waving a hand in front of my face.

Psycho Grant: "uuuugh… damn it. How long was I out?"

Colette: "The whole night."

Genis: "Ya, you were really drunk. You even past out on the dance floor and missed the fire works."

Psycho Grant: "We're still in the club! And I missed all of the events!"

Lloyd, Colette, and Genis: "Yeah."

Psycho Grant: "Did Lloyd fire his illegal fireworks?"

They all nodded, and that, I kind a learned a lesson… next year, we're having a damn BBQ. But now… I have score to settle with the Demonic Banshee… and please make sure your 4th of July turns out better than mine.

(A.N. Remember, this is just a bonus chapter, just like a Red Vs Blue PSA. Still, have a great Independence Day!)


	12. Tales of Halo CH 23

A.N. Tests results are option A wins. 6-0. I would like to make a special thanks to an author who helped me out for some past chapters, DarklightZERO, I promote you to Sgt. Major. Now for those of you other winners, I promote all of you to Specialists. Thank you all for voting! Begin the story!

CH. 23

Plan 2: 2

Heavy Contact

After time passes waiting for the Ground convoy to arrive, the group began their operation and entered the underground entrance. It was a dark way in, but Max and Fred turned on their flashlights, so they were in front of the party lighting the way and clearing away the incoming cobwebs.

"Hey Max," Fred began, "Shouldn't we be waiting for the convoy to arrive? It would be a good idea to."

"Don't worry, I left a beacon out side of the entrance. That way they'll know how to approach the base without being spotted. It'll be fine." The medic answered.

The group finally made it to the end and in front of them was somewhat of a vent. Raine's eyes widen, "Oh I see now, we're in a huge ventilation shaft."

"What's a ven-ti-la-tion shaft?" Lloyd, yet again not knowing what anything is that's new to him is.

While Genis and Raine informed him, Max, Sheena, and Fred peered through vent to examine the room. It then hit the two of them that they were spying on the room they were in yesterday. Some movement caught their eyes as four Desians worked at different computers.

"These guys have computers? I never knew that." Fred said and was then tackled to the ground silently from both Max and Sheena each putting a hand over his mouth. The ninja put a finger over her mouth for the gesture, 'keep it quite you stupid idiot!'

"Did you say something?" the three then focused their gaze back through the vent at one of the Desians who started talking to the other one.

"No I didn't say anything. Why?"

"Oh I thought you said something about these computers. You want to go get something to eat? It's break time after all."

"Sure, besides I haven't had any breakfast yet."

The 2 Desians then left their posts and left the room. Max and Fred looked at each other and nodded, they reached into their gear and started digging for something. Sheena was curious, so she just watched them. Seconds later, they took out identical long, thin, metal pipes and attached them to the barrels of their SMGs.

After they were finished, Fred then took out some kind of cutting tool and began to work on the vent. There were four extremely quiet sounds and the vent came loose. He then laid the metal entrance with stealth on the ground. Seconds later the entire Chosen's group was watching this silently as the two marines walked into the room with their guns traced on their targets. Still, the Desians kept working.

'Is this their way of approaching their enemy by stealth? What they're doing is just like what I learned in Mizuho. Except that they're doing it differently.' Sheena thought as she remembered the years of training she went through. Day or night, rain or shine, she had to train every hour, even getting something to eat and during sleeping hours.

Snapping back to reality, she then saw Fred giving Max some hand signals and then waited for a response. The medic shook his head no, and then he did a different pattern of hand signals.

Fred rolled his eyes in defeat and put his SMG away. Max did the same, but then took out his Energy Sword and made he sure not to squeeze the handle to ignite it. They nodded again and narrowed the gap between them and their targets. When Fred was close enough, he took his left hand and planted it on the back of one of the Desians heads. Quickly, he bashed the target's skull on the edge of the table making the enemy unconscious.

The other Desian standing right next to the situation was about to take out his whip, but then a hand came out from behind and grabbed him by the pressure point on his wrist and felt a cold metal object pressed against his neck. (If you ever played Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, then you must know the original grappling move when you come up behind enemies.)

"Listen to me if you want to live," Max then whispered into the Desian's ear, "do not resist, don't speak unless spoken too, don't even fucking breath. Understood?" the Desian nodded slowly as he wet himself. "Good, now, I'm going to ask you some questions. The more you answer, the less pain you will receive. First question, tell me what these things called Mana Clips are…"

The chosen's party entered the room and they were surprised to find a knocked out Half- elf lying on the floor and the other one being interrogated by Max. Raine then focused her attention to the main computer in the room and began to walk towards it. Turning it on, she then realized that there was no screen. But then a small flash of light flickered a bit and a hologram of the map of the Desian Ranch appeared.

'A hologram-computer never thought I'd see and use one.' The Professor thought. She typed on the keyboard as fast as she could to hack into where Kvar was, but failed.

"Move aside Professor," Fred said as he shoved Raine to side, "this job requires a professional hacker." And as fast as lightning, his fingers moved everywhere on the control panel and words flue past the screen at unreadable speed. He put a finger in the air and waved around before bring it down on the last key.

Seconds later, the word "Access Granted" popped on the computer. Raine's jaw dropped, then she reached into her pockets and pulled out a pencil and a small notebook. "How did you do that?" she asked, "Oh! Oh! Where did you learn how to do it?"

The marine didn't know where to start… in fact, he doesn't even want to tell anyone his secret. "This is bad time you know. Put your crap away." The Professor looked down disappointed and put her stuff back where it came from.

There was a thud sound behind Kratos. He turned around and found a body of the Desian now lying on the floor between him and Max. "What did you just do?"

"What? We made a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"Ooooh that if he answered my questions I would let him live. But right now he's out cold for the moment. I'll tell you what I heard later." He said as he tied up the hostage.

Then sounds of footsteps were coming from the way the group came in. Almost half of the party drew their weapons and waited. The sound stopped, it was complete silence. Using his Mana Carrier instincts, Max listened carefully to anything unusual. In fact there was, multiple guns cocking slowly and a voice, "Private, check and see if the cost is clear. If the Medical lieutenant Max is in there, it will be ok."

"Oh Christ! How dumb can these Marines get every year?" the medic whispered to himself at the same time whacking the side of his own head. "You can come in you know!" he then called out.

A head popped out from vent followed by dozen more. A man with higher rank came into the room with orders. "Medical Lieutenant Max Demore, you're needed up top right away to meet the armor division and don't worry about the attacking from the inside and your friends will be fine with us. That's an order."

Max sighed, "Ok, orders are orders." He turned to Fred, "Fred, you're going with the Chosen's Group to Kvar's room and take him out, you got that?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I…oh…shit." There was then a long pause through out the room. Suddenly alarms and red light flashed for only a few seconds till it stopped. Every one including the Marines eyed him as he bashed his own head on the keyboard. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! They detected me! They'll be here soon!"

"And I thought Professor Sage was bad at these computers." Lloyd said

"I thought so too." Genis agreed

Suddenly, Raine lost her temper…again. She whacked the two them in the head making them collide into each other.

"Wouldn't that be child abused?" one of the marines asked.

"She's like that sometimes." Max answered.

"Son! What are still doing here?" the officer yelled. "Get you ass back to the front of the base and wait for the armor division!"

"Ok I'm going. Wish you luck guys." Max saluted, waved, and left. Sheena was about to go after him but was told to stay with the group.

"He'll be fine Sheena." Colette said, "Besides, Genis says that he has plenty of mana in him and Kratos says he might take on an army."

Sheena looked at her a bit puzzled, "Wait a minute Colette, how much mana are we talking about?"

"I don't know." She put a finger over her lips thinking for a second, "Genis said he didn't know where the line of the mana stops. He says that Max has enough to create a spell powerful then Eruption but a billion times stronger."

"That's not possible." The female ninja stated, "He would die from mana depletion if he did do something like that. And how would he take on an army if his just fighting by himself?"

In the Mean Time Where Max is…

"You wanted me here sir?" Max asked another highest, ranking officer. There were at least fifty marines hiding behind the trees wait for the order to charge.

"Yes, you see, we need all the help for the tank."

"What?" Max said with eyes open and jaw dropped.

"The plan is that we are going to plant some smoke grenades to cover our approach, run over to the wall of the base, plant some explosives on the gate and have that tank come in for us to destroy."

"How? I mean there's a bubble around it. How are we going to penetrate it?"

"Scientists figured that something with high speed would not penetrate it, for instants, the bullets from our guns. The only way is to run into the bubble and destroy it with grenades."

After he finished, then was a large explosion. Max and the officer turned around and found a group of marines flying in all directions. "HEAVY CONTACT! HEAVY CONTACT 12 o'clock high!" a marine yelled, "TAKE COVER!"

"Officer, Have the men move the line down. It will make it thinner and we'll have less casualties." The officer nodded to Max and gave the order. Marines did as they were supposed to and returned fire.

"Medic! Somebody help me!" Max heard the cry and looked around. Out in the open was soldier in a pool of his own blood, missing one arm and both legs. Using a free arm to wave for help.

"You two!" the medic pointed to two marines that are now staring at him, "Give me covering fire as I go get that man." The soldiers bobbed their heads and focused their shooting at the Desians on the wall.

Max knew what to do even if it meant risking his own life. He ran out from his cover and rushed as fast as he can to the casualty making sure he was still alive.

'What caused that explosion?' the medic thought, 'the tank wasn't in sight yet, none of the guards on the wall did not have a rocket launcher what so ever, and where did it come from?' Max looked at the base as he took out tons and tons of bandages to clog the wounds. But more blood would just pore out through his hands making it impossible to cover three of the openings.

Then a flash of light caught his eyes at what seems to be a window. Another flash came from the same place and yet another explosion went off right in front of him, throwing him off his knees onto his back.

"Oh… shit…" he muttered as his shoulder ached in pain, "hey, you still alive…? Oh you gotta be kidding me…" What he saw first was the marine that he was trying to save is now dead, torso blown open with very few organs lying out of the corps, and the horror on the face that looks like that the last thing he saw was something…was…well… something horrifying.

Looking back at that same window, he focused again on it. Again with the Mana Carrier instincts, he then saw something that looked like the end of a barrel.

'A Hypersonic Gauss Cannon… where the fuck did they get this stuff?' "Sir! Patch in some smoke now! They got a Gauss Cannon!"

"Gauss Cannon!" the officer was shocked, he had to agree to Max and gave the order for some smoke. As the smoke thickened, Max looked down on his shoulder and saw a small piece of metal sticking out. He yanked it out and ran over to the wall. Putting his gun against the wall he looked his small wound. It was small, but deep.

"Damn." He whispered, "this sure is a bad time to get a tiny injury that hurts like hell. Hope this heals fast… in fact, it would be helpful if it would heal really fast right now."

While saying this, he kind a thought of it also, a second later he felt something warm hit his wound. It felt like the warmest waters of the beaches on Earth. His eyes went wide when he saw some sort of blue light with very little specks of blue sparks flying out and disappeared the moment it was released, coming out of the cut. Then the wound closed up with no marks from it and also the bloodstains were not on his outfit any more.

'The moment I'm done here…' he began to think, '…I'm going to the nearest fucking library this worlds got and look for any history books on Mana Carrier and the powers they can hold. Well now… better get back to reality and start shooting.'

"You ok?" Max turned around and saw a soldier looking at him to see if he was all right.

"I'm fine, felt like there was something in my shoulder." 'Well…there was something in it a moment ago.' "Do you have the explosives?"

The Marine gave him a grin, "You're asking the right person. Here." He tossed a couple to Max without thinking. The Medic dived forward really fast (yes… with beginner speed for a Mana Carrier that would be training) and caught them all. He sighed with relief and started scolding the marine that tossed the 'HIGHLY explosive C-4'.

"You're really dumb for a engineer you know that. If this C-4 hit the ground, we wouldn't be here… and a chunk of this wall wouldn't be here either."

"And you're really fast for a medic. Did you do Track 'n Field?"

"Whatever! Just help me place these on the gate."

Meanwhile with the Chosen's Group…

"Officer, did your team turn on the last control panel for the teleporter thingy?" Fred spoke into the radio while defending a room that turned out to be a dead end with one door and a teleporting platform with Lloyd, Genis, Kratos, and Colette.

"Miss ninja and the teacher couldn't activate the Guard system with any of the buttons so they're hot wiring it. It will only take a moment…GRENADE!"

There was a faint sound of an explosion and a few of the last cries of Desians…followed by a voice, "Will you stop using those things! It hard all ready trying to get this thing to work and you're making it harder for us with those distractions!"

"Yeah!" a second voice followed which belonged to Sheena.

"Sorry! Sorry, just don't kill me…heh heh heh…because I do know I'm to good looking for you to die."

"What!" Sheena and Raine yelled at him in unison. The two of them were actually ready to bust his ass.

"Wrong thing to say sir even if you're half ugly, half handsome… but mostly old." Fred said jokingly.

"Say that a again?"

"Nothing! I said nothing! Anyway, just hurry up will ya!" the radio crackle and a voice of another team came on.

"This is team 3, we have successfully escorted the Exsphere host bodies or Prisoners or what ever you call it that were in the brig of the ranch to the LZ and awaiting further orders."

"This is Team 2, you better get your ass' over to the to the battle outside. They'll need the help."

"Yes sir, over and out."

"Fred Get down!" Fred turned around and saw Genis, Kratos, and Colette, to him it looked like the two of them were playing around. Genis was waving his Kendama around him, Kratos was just holding his hands out, and Colette was playing with her hands, they were mumbling something that he just couldn't make out. But it turned out, they were casting!

"Oh shit!" the Marine dove to the side avoiding being killed by friendly fire.

"Icicle!" a huge piece of ice shot out of the ground freezing one Desian.

"Fire Ball!" Three flaming balls of death shot out of Kratos' hand and eradicated another target.

"Angel Feathers!" out of nowhere, three Chakrams came flying at the last Desian in the room leaving a trail of feathers behind.

Fred laid on his back in shock, "I thought magic didn't exist… and yet… that was fucking awesome!"

Then, the teleporter flashed with lights and lit up, followed by Fred's radio filled with static again, "Team 1 this is Team 2, our two hotties finished. Did it work over there?"

"IT'S PROFESSOR!"

"And I have a name too you know!"

"Yep, it works fine. Now hurry up and get over here." As the battle raged on, Fred clicked off his Wireless to the rest of the group, "Well well, this is our Q… let's go."

Back Outside…

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

The gate that was once there with a few C-4 was gone in one explosion.

"Ok every, let's go get those mother fucks!" five marines stood back up and began to run through the gap.

"Don't go in…!" before another soldier could finish, a rain of bullets came in and struck its target followed by a blast finishing off the marines.

Max saw this, more men died on every battlefield he's ever been on. Even though, after his first fight on the first war zone going head to head against the Covenant, he was scared half to death. But now, he put that all behind him. Back to the action now…

Max went up to the edge of the gap and peeked around the corner. The tank with Magitechnology attachments was the vehicle blocking their progress and was also their objective.

"Lieutenant, what do you see? Is it the tank?" the officer asked while reloading his M90 Mk.II Shotgun. Max nodded in a reply. "Great, this keeps getting better and better. Patch another smoke."

"I don't think smoke will stop it." A marine stated, "They got all 10 riflemen aimed this way."

"Still…" Max began while checking his ammo, "…let's use the smoke. I'll go in there myself if I have to. That is our objective anyway." The soldier and the officer stared at him with eyes wide.

"That's crazy enough for a medic, plus I don't think you'll make it back in pieces before you can finish yelling "DIE YOU EVIL COVENANT NAZIS!". If I were you, I'd past that."

"Fine, stay here. Give me a smoke grenade first."

Moments later after throwing a smoke grenade, the world around Max slowed down. 'It's happening again…' he then remembered the first time it happened. In the temple of Wind when he fought against Sheena. He thought for a second before doing anything, 'I could use this for our advantage with out the UNSC noticing… if they don't notice anything strange about me.'

Running up to the nearest Desian and fired the three round burst from his Battle Rifle to the head. He did it to the rest of the Desians that had guns till they were flying backwards in slow motion.

Suddenly, something went wrong, time was returning to normal. "What the fuck happened?" He turned to the tank, which was now aiming at him. "Oh this better not be the same driver that tried to kill me…"

Max began his run to the tank, and he did notice that he just ran through the bubble protecting it. 'Slow speed can only penetrate it, huh? I'd give the scientists ten points for this.' He climbed onto the tank and went to the hatch. As he tried to open it, it wouldn't budge. Taking out his energy sword, then placed it on the cockpit still in his hands without turning it on.

Before he could ignite it, he spoke, "Paybacks a bitch, ain't it?" squeezing the handle, it came to life having the long end burning through the hatch into the driver's seat. For the last seven seconds, there was a cry of the Desian driver, now pronounced dead…

'There…objective complete… now time to…'

"Lucky son of a bitch!" Max turned around a saw a group of marines coming towards him, "that was bloody cool mate" the soldier said with an Australian accent.

"MAX!" the medic turned his head again to fine Sheena with some bruises, covered with sweat, and out of breath.

"Sheena are you ok? What's wrong?" Max asked as he jumped down from the tank at the same time he spotted both the Chosen's group and the marines that were in side the base running like hell while Lloyd was carrying Colette.

"We have to get the hell out of here! Raine set the ranch to self-destruct!" All of the marines that were celebrating stopped and looked at her.

"You're not kidding are you?" Sheena shook her head, "how much time do we have?"

"Three minutes… at least…"

"Ok… every one has one minute to collect the dog tags, pick up the wounded and grab as many guns as you can and get the fuck out!"

Luin, 1830 Hours (6:30 pm)…

"So that's the problem with Colette? This thing you call Angeltoxicossis she gets after every seal she opens, means that she'll lose apart of her humanity and become an angel?" The chosen's group nodded.

"This isn't right!" Lloyd barked raising a fist, "there has to be another way!"

"Max, Fred, is there way to save Colette from this? Can the UNSC make a special cure or something? You guys have such strong technology there should be a way." Raine asked while bandaging Colette's shoulder. Colette was knocked out cold ever since the ranch was destroyed.

Fred shook his head, "The scientists could make a cure, but that means they would treat as a lab rat for months, or maybe a year or longer. You guy know you don't want that."

"You serious?"

"Dead serious Lloyd… my uncle caught a rear decease on Mars, Scientists studied him for twenty fucking years till he couldn't take it any more and committed suicide."

"Damn it… hey, where's Sheena?" every one looked around the room and Lloyd was right, where was Sheena.

"She might be up in her room. I'll go check on her, she did look like she was beat up pretty bad you know." Max walked up the stairs as Fred, Lloyd and Genis watched him disappear from sight.

Fred Smiled and looked at the other two, "Bow chick 'a bow wow!"

"What's that suppose to mean?" the two asked.

"Don't 'cha get it? Those two might be smooching tonight. I'm gonna go see what they're up to, want to come?"

Max made it to Sheena's door and knocked twice, there was no reply. "Hey Sheena, it's me, Max." He knocked again, still the same silence. He put his ear up next to the door to listen to anything strange.

There was two voices, they seemed to be whispering, "Sheena, what are you doing above the doorway!"

'Corrine…'

"Shhh… can't a Guardian user test some one and have a little bit of fun?"

'Sheena… well, at least she and the others doesn't know that I'm a Mana Carrier… I guess that my military life just got easier.' He opened the door a bit and peered through the crack, pretending he doesn't know what's going on.

"Sheena?" he said as he walked into the room, "Where the hell is she?"

When he stopped in the middle of the room, Sheena got ready, 'Show time!' she push off the wall a dove down towards Max, but suddenly, he did something that she thought he would do… he shifted to the side without turning around. "Crap!" she landed hard on the wooded floor missing her target, bringing some more pain for her bruises.

"Oooh there you are! Where have you been? I was looking all over for ya." Max said sarcastically. "You ok?"

From the tone of his voice, She looked up at him, "You knew!"

"Maaaaaaaaaybe… anyway, let me help you up." He scooped her off the group and carried her to the bed and sat down next to her, "ok, I noticed that you still have some bruises. May I take a look at them?"

"Um…sure." He began. He pulled down the purple sleeve to her wrist and examined her right arm. Being very careful, he slowly put tiny bit of pressure on each bruise, "Does this hurt?"

"No."

"Ok then… what about this one?"

"Grrr, yes."

"Alright…what this?"

"What's what?" Sheena looked at what Max was pointing at, a small cut that was still bleeding a little bit and was sown half way. "That? Well since it's not serious I decided to do that myself and…"

"Is it clean?"

"Huh?"

"The string, was it cleaned off before you used it?"

"No, why?"

"Sigh… Come here let me take care of this." He took out a knife and gently cut the string out, the next step was that he used alcohol to clean the cut, it did sting a bit for Sheena, and lastly he put on a medium sized band-aid.

"Done, how're you feeling? Anywhere else I need to see?"

"I feel fine now, thanks… hey Max?"

"Yeah?"

"How much do you… never mind, I'll ask you another time."

"What's wrong? You were going to ask me the same question last time. How much 'what'?"

"I said I'd ask you another time."

"Ok you're sure you don't want to talk about it?" Sheena gave him a glare and backed away, "Never mind… sleep well."

"You too." Max walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, again for the second time she stood there looking at the door. Seconds later she heard talking out in the hallway.

"Ok! How long were you three here for? What were you doing?"

"Fred! Genis! Run!"

Sheena began to giggle at the racket outside. She then thought about something for the moment before retiring for the night.

Mean While in space on the Frigate, Le Montreal…

"Captain, we're ready to scan the Covenant ship."

"Begin the scan." Captain Stephan Benard said while looking over the operators back. A picture of the ship came up on screen along with the map of the inside.

"Sir, scanners picked up at least 159 heat signatures only on the bridge and the brig."

"What about the rest of the ship? That kind of ship should hold at least twenty thousand Covenant."

"There are no other life forms any where else on the ship… only the bridge and the brig."

"Sir!" another operator called out, "I've managed to hacked into their computers… well… the computer says that they have all of their doors that goes into those two rooms locked from the bridge. What do you think they're doing?"

"I don't know…"

"I got another ten signatures in the weapons bay at the nose of the ship."

"169 Covenant… get the General on the horn about this. We just might take them."

A.N. Oh Yeah! I almost forgot, I heard that last month on June 20, 2006, Namco announced an official OVA (anime) for Tales of Symphonia planned to come out in Japan on the year 2007. Keep your fingers crossed TOS fans and hope that it comes out in North America soon… that is all… I found out about it on Wikipedia. Org, check it out!


	13. Tales of Halo CH 24

CH. 24

Ghost Ship

It was another morning in Luin, it was really chilly and the sky was fogged. Most of the UNSC marines were in their barracks avoiding the weather. The rest were unlucky and were outside on guard duty.

Max was still in his cot in the time of daylight. He didn't mind the group of UNSC personnel down stares talking out loud while having a sip of their morning coffee, didn't mind the tiny bit of sun light from the gaps in the clouds hitting him, but he did mind the smell of breakfast that smells like pineapple being brought into his room, and what he did not like was something jumping on his back and dug its nails into him.

"Aaaah!" he rolled off the cot and landed on the floor with his pistol in his hands. Looking up, he saw Lloyd, Sheena, and Colette glaring down at him, "oh, what up?"

"Good morning Max!" the three said back. As Max got his eyes to focus, he saw at his table there was a tray of delicious food.

"I see that some one beat me to the kitchen this morning."

"That was me." Sheena said raising a hand, "I thought you might need a break from cooking and today so I took over and made Fried Rice with a hint of some flavor added to it."

"Thanks. Anyway, why did you guys wake me up? And was that Corrine that dug his claws into me?"

"That's right!" a high-toned voice called out from under him, "can you please get off me now! I'm not fit to be a pillow!"

"Geeze, sorry I didn't know." Max got off the ground allowing Corrine to move and sat back down on the bed yawning. "So what's the plan for today?"

"Well, the Professor wants us to tell you that you'll be taking a day off." Colette informed, "I almost forgot! We have to go wake up Kratos now."

"That's right!" Lloyd ran to doorway with Colette and stopped, "come on Corrine, we'll need your nails again."

"Ok…" Corrine got up and ran towards the others. The door closed behind the three leaving Max and Sheena in the same room alone again for the fifth time. (I did my math so don't correct me if I'm wrong on my own fanfic!)

Max then turned to Sheena, "you guys sure you want me to take a day off? I mean… I have to talk to the man in charge here so I…"

"You don't need to, remember? You said weeks ago before we parted ways that your mission was to travel the world on your own and find answers on where you and this army are. So that means you're in charge of yourself for a while until this General guy cancels you assignment and gives you a different mission."

"Yeah, that's true…" she looked at him after he finished and said nothing, "oh forget about it… still, what's the plan for the day?"

"Yesterday when we went to visit Pietro, we made a deal with his sister that after we saved the people at the ranch that we find a cure for his illness in return." It was Max's turn to look at her without saying anything, but then he did.

"What kind of cure? What's the illness?" Max was about to get up but Sheena forced him to sit back down.

"No, you're not going anywhere. You're going to rest today because you've been in fighting for five days at least. Isn't that too much?" the medic nodded and walked over to the table with breakfast on it, "you should eat before it gets cold. I'll see you later." Sheena was about to leave, when she turned to the door Max was now in front of her.

"Where ya Go 'n?"

Her eyes widen, she looked back where Max was a second ago and back to him, "How the…? You were…? What the hell just happened! How did you do that?"

"A little trick I learned a few weeks ago." 'Or a few days ago.'

"After we part ways?"

"Yep. Still, where are you going?"

"Hima."

Max then went over to his stuff and dug around in his pack. "Speaking of Hima, I should go there also. All I have to do there is inform the general of my findings at the ranch and then I'll take a break." After seconds of searching, he brought over three objects and placed them on the table, something that was blue, a bottle of some type of liquid inside, and another object that was blue, but round.

"When we had a minute to get the hell out of the base before it blown to pieces, I found these…" he pointed to the objects, "first up is the so called Mana Clip, it's only designed to be used for battle rifles, you put it where the clip goes and it can identify the user, so whenever you fire a shot from it, it takes away a large amount of mana in the shooter."

"Hey Sheena!" Lloyd yelled from the hallway, "Are you coming or not? We have to get there by noon."

"She is Lloyd!" Max called, "and I'm coming too. Besides, you guys will need a ride." He then devoured his meal and paused when finished, "…I did not know that you can combine pineapple and fried rice… very good combination I love it!" he placed the empty bowl back on the table and Sheena was very happy.

"I'm glad that you like it, I'm very fascinated of the taste of pineapple, I use it in almost every meal I make. It does bring out the flavor."

"It does. We should get going now, I'll explain the rest of the items on the way."

An Hour Later at the Crash MAC gun…

"How many Marines do we have that want to go on this mission?" General Hoth asked while examining the Bridge as I transforms into an actual War room instead of a wreaked up command post after the incident.

"24 sir, how many more do you think we'll need?" a female officer asked while looking over the list of soldiers.

"Just one, I must be a fool sending a squad of ODST Helljumpers into that ship."

"It will go as planned General." The officer looked over to the side and saw Max entering the room, "ah, here comes the lieutenant… he seems to be mumbling something."

As Max walked closer, the two could only hear the last part of the sentence, "…why the hell do they want to give me the title 'Doc'? It's retarded! I don't even want a title." He said remembering the ride to the HQ.

Flash Back…

Lloyd: "Hey Max, do you have a title?"

Max: "Title?"

Lloyd: "Yeah, for example, my title now is 'Comboist', Colette's 'Chosen', Genis' 'Honor Roll', Professor Sage's 'Researcher', Kratos is still 'Mercenary' for some reason, and Sheena's is…is…"

Sheena: "Mysterious Assassin…"

Lloyd: "Yeah, those kind of titles. What's yours?"

Max: "Well… I am in the military so I guess my rank would be my title."

Colette: "Really? What is it?"

Max: "Medical Lieutenant."

Genis: "It doesn't sound catchy, we should change it."

Colette: "This sounds like fun! I got one, how about Doc?"

Lloyd: "I vote for that one."

Genis: "Me two."

Sheena: " I agree it kind a suits him."

Max: "Noooo… I don't want to be called Doc…"

Da Da Daaa! Max has earned the Title "Doc". Description: "Goddamn it! I'm a Medic, not a doctor!"

End of Flash Back…

"Hello lieutenant, is everything ok?"

Max snapped his head up at the general, "what…? I'm fine, just got a little head ache on the flight here that's all."

"Did you bring the unknown items you found at the ranch the other day?"

The 'Doc' nodded and placed the three items on the table. He explained the Mana Clip, and then he moved on to the next two. "This right here…" Max said while holding up a bottle full of liquid, "is an Incendiary Bottle, it works similar to the 20th century Incendiary Grenade, but does twice as much damage." Then he picked up the last object and put the other one away carefully, "last is the Desian version of an EMP grenade, yet again it works similar to our EMPs."

"So the reason that you're showing us this is because the Desians want to be like the UNSC, correct?" the officer asked.

"Yep, I think around the same day when we arrived to this world they started getting nosy about us… Late last night without letting the Chosen's Group know, I interrogated that one guy we took prisoner from the ranch to get to know what these items are… that's all I can inform you for now."

"I see…" Hoth said while lighting his pipe, "Lieutenant?" Max looked at him waiting for what's to be heard, "Have you ever been on a Covenant Capital ship before?"

Max shook his head no and thought for the moment, 'He's kidding…'

Time passes…

"What's Taking Max so long?" Lloyd complained, "He should've been back here ages ago."

"Maybe… he's just getting some more medical supplies. I did see that in the pockets of his uniform were half empty yesterday before supper." Raine stated.

"But after that he said that he was going out to get more and he did." Genis corrected.

"Then what is he doing?" Sheena thought out loud to herself as she felt someone tap on her shoulder followed by a voice that sound like it was masked out.

"Hey guys."

Sheena then turned around and was shocked, so shocked that she fell down on her butt. There stood before her was a UNSC soldier dress in all steel black clothing, steel black chest plate, shoulder plates, plates in the hips, even the crotch area, armor shin plates that connect to the boots, space camouflage design pants and shirt, black gloves connected to the sleeves of the shirt, ten medium size pockets going around the waist, another four on the chest plate, and last to top it all off… a helmet with a dark blue visor covering the face. (Man there's a huge list, I wish I could on and on but you just get bored in the next 15 hours or so. lol)

"Relax Sheena it's just me." The soldier said as he turned the helmet to the side making an air release sound. And underneath that visor was Max.

"By Martel Max! You almost scared me to death." The ninja yelled at him… then paused… then looked at what he was wearing, "Why are you in a different outfit all of a sudden?"

"I'm just doing a little side mission. I'll be leaving in about ten minutes."

"Where are you going?" Sheena asked trying to sound like Max from this morning, "I thought I told you to take a break."

"How about this, after I'm done with the mission, I'll make it up for all of you and make the best dinner you'll ever have. How does that sound?" Everyone nodded in agreement to him, "ok then you guys, see you all later."

"Wait! You didn't answer my question. Where are you going?" Before the rest of the party could hear from him, he was gone, "darn… you know he could be quite mysterious sometimes."

"It kind a runs through all of us miss." A random marine said as he walked by.

"I think that man is right," Raine said at the same time she put up a finger, "In the mean time, I'm going to go over towards those UNSC vehicles I've never seen before." She then pointed in the direction of the UNSC ATVs.

"Sigh… Corrine!"

Another hour later on the Pelican Drop Ship Rolling Thunder…

"OK! LISTEN UP HELLJUMPERS!" all of the ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) including Max looked at the Officer who was now announcing their Mission Objectives, "The word is this that there will be five groups of five. Each group will have their own objective. Team 1 will go to the Armory on the front end of the ship and look for the 100rCN. Team 2 will do a clean sweep of the brig and free any UNSC personnel. Team 3 will head towards the bridge and place charges to blow this ship to hell. Last, team 4 and 5 will clear the ship of any runaways. Now I will put you into groups, the moment we land in the hanger, look for you other team members from the other drop ships, alright private you're in group…"

Max just sat in his seat waiting for his number and wait for the ship to land. He looked over to his left and saw an ODST troop fallen asleep; he turned his head to right a found another soldier looking at a picture of himself, his daughter, and his wife.

"You got a family back home?" Max asked him. The soldier eyed him and went back to the picture.

"Not anymore…my… my wife died on Reach, she was a Fighter Pilot." The soldier was a tad depressed on talking about his life, "and my daughter… she too died…on earth the day when the Covenant came."

"Oh…sorry to hear that"

"That's ok. What about you? Do you have a Girlfriend or wife or somebody you like?"

The Medical Lieutenant paused for the moment and the only person that crossed his mind was Sheena's face, 'why am I thinking of Sheena from that question? Am I… falling for her?'

"You just thought of some one didn't you?"

"Uuum… no I didn't…" under his visor he blushed a bit, 'thank god for the helmet…and why am I blushing?'

"Lieutenant…" Max snapped his head up at the officer standing in front of him, "you're in group 1, same goes with you Corporal Leon."

"Yes sir." The man said, then he put the picture away in one of his pockets, cocked his gun and was more ready than Max.

"Hey Doc," Max then turned to a different soldier who was looking at something on the ground, "why did you bring your cat-thing along?"

"A cat? I don't even own a cat."

"Then what the hell do you call that between your feet?"

Max glared down and saw something, to the ODST troops it looked like an ugly rat with lots of tales that are the color blue, but to Max, it was Corrine. The medic quickly scooped the summon spirit off the ground and held him in the air. "Corrine! What the hell are you doing here!"

"Sheena wanted me to follow you, she seemed very concerned about you going on this mission without anyone from the Chosen's group to come here with."

All of the ODST troops were shocked, "Whoa man! It talks!"

"You know who and what that thing is Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir, I know who this is, his name's Corrine and he's my friends pet."

Corrine suddenly hit Max's visor with his tales, "I'm no pet! I'm a summon spirit! Sheena saved me and I dedicate my life for her."

The officer put a hand up to his face as the two quarreled and looked back toward the cockpit of the ship and saw that they began to approach the Covenant ship. "Ok every one lock and load we're going in." the pilot announced, "and it looks like the basterds were kind enough to leave the hanger door open for us." The ship entered the hanger and came up to a platform to unload the troops. "Give 'em hell!"

"Pile your ass's out! Look for your teams!" the soldiers jumped out of the back and did a quick search of the unfilled area. Later they met over in the corner of the hanger, where they found a crashed Pelican Drop Ship, which was completely wrecked and empty. When they were done examining it, they got in their groups and moved out.

After a good five minutes or so, Max's group Team 1 began their advance towards the armory. The trip there was a strange one, there was lots of blood along the walls and floors of the corridor in different colors, blue (Grunts blood), Purple (Elite, Jackal, or Brutes blood), orange (Hunters blood), Green (Drones or ? blood), and red (human blood), but where are the bodies.

"Something's not right here…" all of the troops looked at each other agreeing what the other soldier said. After they went through the bloody hall, the air around them suddenly turned into green mist and power for the lights were out further on.

"Max," Corrine spoke while sitting on Max's shoulder, "I sense something evil moving away from us further down the corridor." Each and every team member stopped in his or her tracks and looked at him, then something was wrong.

"Where's Sgt. Heubair?" A member was missing. They all turned on their flashlights that were attached to their helmets observing the area. Nothing…

Max flicked on his radio, "Sgt.? Sgt. Heubair? Where are you? Don't be fucking around with us what's your current status?" seconds there was nothing but static, "This is Team 1 to all teams, we have a missing soldier, have you seen him? And what's your progress?"

"This is team 3, we have just reached the bridge doors, and we're beginning to do the plasma cutting, and no we haven't seen your lost puppy."

"Team 2 here, the doors to the brig is closed tight, like as if there's another layer preventing something from getting in. We will continue till we get this damn thing open. And you're not the only team missing people, we've lost two members already, we don't even know what happened to them."

"Ok, teams 4 and 5 what's your status?" nothing but more static, " 4 and 5 please respond." More static.

"I got something on motion tracker you guys!" a ODST soldier whispered, "There's two of them on the first left coming to us." Every one then checked theirs and nod.

Max listened carefully, the sound he heard was strange, it was like something was squirmy around with slime covering it. Looking back at the motion tracker, the two unknown objects started to move away from the group.

"That's… strange." Said a soldier.

As time passes while traveling down the spooky hallway, they finally reached their destination almost forgetting about their missing comrade.

"Ok, there's the damn armory. Now start cutting down the door." Every one stared at the group leader and took a moment of silence, "………………………it was the Sgt. That had the cutting tools wasn't it?"

"Yeah…"

Mean While in an unknown area in Sylvarant…

"So Remial, when will the Chosen of Sylvarant be able to complete the last Seal?" an sinister voice questioned as he looked down on the world.

"Very soon my lord. But are you sure we shouldn't worry about this army known as the UNSC? "

"Remember that the Desians are our pawns and are also a distraction to them. If this human named Max Demore that travels with the Chosen finds out about us, and our plans, eliminate him and his army. Understood?"

"Yes my lord, the day of half-elf's is now drawing to a close. Your plan will go smoothly."

Back on the Covenant Capital ship…

"One…two…three. Pull!" The group pushed and pulled the sliding door, but did not budge an inch. The ODST party collapsed in exhaustion before Max. He just leaned against the wall taking off his helmet in order to get a drink from his canteen.

"You know Corrine, maybe the reason why we can't get this thing open is the whole ship must be on lock down, don't you agree…? Corrine?" Max looked down where Corrine was. It looked like he had his head stuck in an air vent, what was he doing?

"Corrine, what are you…" suddenly sparks of electricity shot out shocking Corrine, he then shot out like a bullet into another vent leave a trail of smoke behind him. The door then opened with a beep surprising the group. "Holy crap Corrine! What did you just do!"

"D-d-door's o-opened." Then something that was puffed up like a poodle covered with black stuff came walking out of the vent. Most of the group laughed, except for Max and the officer. Immediately the group's excitement was cut short when their motion trackers picked something up again.

"Every one into the armory, double time. Doc, private, cover for us." Max and another soldier nodded and took up positions.

Max looked back at his radar and showed that there was dozens upon dozens of movement coming towards them. 'There sure is a lot of them, I've never seen Covenant forces in that large of a group in close quarters before.'

"Here comes the Covenant Doc, get ready."

A door about seven yards away from them burst open with extream force, the two traced their guns on that door, holding their position.

"THIS IS THE FRIGATE LE MONTREAL TO ALL TEAMS! ABORT THE MISSION! GET OFF THAT SHIP IMMEDIATELY! OUR LONG RANGE MOTION SENSERS HAVE JUST PICKED UP THOUSANDS OF UNKNOWN LIFE FORMS ON THAT SHIP! I REPAET! ALL TEAMS ABANDON THAT SHIP THIS INSTENT!" the wireless screamed into Max's and the team's ear.

"That's not good… that corridor is the only way to the hanger."

"We're screwed…"

Then their targets appeared, swarms and swarms of these squid like creature came charging towards them. The two fired into the swarm, bullets did nothing. When they hit one, they popped like balloons.

"Holy fuck! What are those thing!"

"Private, cover me! I need to reload!"

"Me too Doc…AAAAH!" Max turned his head to the other ODST troop who went flying back into the room with out getting struck by anything. It looked like something was dragging him. Then Max felt something grab the back of his outfit and pants and started dragging him back into the room also. Still staring into the hallway, he saw the unknown creatures gather ready to make another charge. Before they could, the door closed shut.

"You alright Max?" The medic turned his head and saw Corrine in the air…floating.

"Yeah, but what just pulled me in?"

"We did human!" a high pitch voice answered. Max looked around the room and thought, 'Grunt…to the right…' he shot his right hand out to the right and got a hold of something. The Grunt uncloaked itself and started to struggle for release of the grip around his neck. Another one revealed itself and started to flee in panic making Corrine fell off.

"Stand down soldier…" a voice called out, "I believe he's our new ally." The medic released the Grunt, got off the ground, and looked towards the Group leader who had six UNSC personnel, three Grunts (plus the one that's in Max release makes four), and an Elite, all of them standing behind him.

"Would… any of you mind telling me what the hell is going on?"

Back down on Sylvarant…

"Here we are! Thoda Geyser! Our stop!" Fred announced.

"Why did you have to come along with us Fred?" Professor Sage asked.

"Max wanted me to." He then glanced at Sheena, "and to look after…"

Sheena saw him staring, "look after what?"

He rolled his eyes, "Oooh… nothing."

"Fred! Sheena! We have to get to that next seal. We need that Undine person to get that Unicorn out of that lake."

"Coming Lloyd!" the two said at the same time. "Right now I wonder if Max is doing alright right about now." Sheena thought out loud.

Back On the Covenant Capital Ship After Teams 2 through 5 Have Been Eliminated by the Flood…

"Let's get this straight… on the day the Covenant arrived to Earth, one of their Capital ships warped from the city New Mombassa to an artificial ring world called Halo. During a few weeks there, they fought against and joined UNSC forces that follow the ship, there was an all out civil war with in the Covenant, they accidentally unleashed a something from this Library place on that world called flood which a moment we just saw, they spent weeks fighting there till they fired the 100rCN which they thought would take them to earth taking the flood along with them, and…that's all you know?" Max questioned trying to

"That's right Lieutenant. And it's not like we get information all the information you know."

"So we're teaming up with the New Covenant for now on, right?"

"Yep. But now we have a question for you."

"Hm?"

"Are we back in Earth's territory?" The ODST team fell silent, "So?"

"Well… you see… this isn't Earth."

"What…?"

"Well now," Max then checked his motion tracker, which shows the corridors are all clear, "you'll just have to wait and find that out for your selves the moment we get the hell out of here. Now would be a good time too."

All of the UNSC personnel radios in the room started beeping before any announcement was made, "Any surviving UNSC ODST troops this is the Le Montréal, in the next 1200 seconds (20 minutes), the orbital MAC stations will begin to fire at the ship. I do say again…" the group of fourteen UNSC and New Covenant stared at one another quietly till they could of heard wind blowing by.

"Max?" Corrine asked, "How long is the trip back to the hanger?"

"Forty minutes by walking and shooting, thirty to twenty minutes by running and screaming like crazy drunks."

"Or Human…" everyone looked at the blue armored Elite, "we can simply get on a boarding craft that's about ten units away." Everyone took his vote began the plan escape.

A.N. This chapter might sound a little crappy…Please don't kill me!


	14. Tales of Halo CH 25

CH. 25

The Truce, the Teachings,

And the Seal

Late Night in Luin…

The Chosen's group slept soundly in their rooms after a long day. Earlier they stopped by Lake Umacy where they found a unicorn trapped under the water, made a pact with the summon spirit Undine, rescued the unicorn and was rewarded its horn, but sadly it also gave away its life to live too. (And no, they did not get to the last seal yet.). Right now, the weather went from fog to rain.

"Temples…temples every where…" Raine started to speak in her sleep. She tossed and turned picturing temples of all kinds. Ones that are made of metal, marble, stone, and ones that are filled with rare artifacts, "this… beautiful vase… would cost about a good… 100,000,000,000 Gald… Zzzzz." With one last twirl she fell off the bed and landed face fist making a small thumb sound.

"Ouch! What?" she got up and looked around the room and noticed that she was just dreaming, "aaawww…I thought it was real." she complained, then looked at the clock on the wall and read 1:51 pm. 'better get something to drink.'

Walking down to the lobby, she started to hear voices, going from talking to laughter. When she made it to the room, she found Fred and Sheena sitting at a table drinking hot cocoa.

"…Then Max said to the pilot, "shouldn't we land there since the battle is right in front of us?" and I was all like, "not unless you expect these guys to do an all out kamikaze run I suggest not landing there." Suddenly without thinking he just jumped out the back of the drop ship and fell like twenty feet, but luckily, he landed on a pile of dead Grunts."

"What are you two doing up?" the Professor asked interrupting the conversation.

"Oh, hey Raine. I was just talking about funny stories that Max and I have been through." He then offers Raine a cup of cocoa. She took the offer and sat down with them.

"So Fred, are you still on guard duty or is it your night off?"

Fred took a quick sip, "I'm a lucky bastered tonight, cause it is my night off."

"I see… why aren't you sleeping then?"

"Long story."

"Hmm…why are you up Sheena?"

Sheena then looked out the window and noticed it started to rain harder, "I couldn't sleep. The rain kept making tapping sounds on the window of the room." (Hell… it happens to me during rainy weather also.).

'Suuuurrre. Thanking of Max again now aren't ya?' Fred thought.

Sheena then noticed something; she turned her head left and right examining the room, "Uuummmm… Corrine?"

Smoke quickly shot up from the center of the table revealing Corrine sitting before the three, "hello every one."

"Hello Corrine, I take it that Max is back also?" Raine said. Suddenly without warning, the front door of the inn burst opened. There stood a scary, shadowy figure, to make it scarier for them, lightning outside struck at the same time along with a huge gust of wind.

"AAAAAHHHH!" both Raine and Sheena screamed terror, "THE GHOST OF LUIN!" the two of them then jump behind Fred since he was the only one with a gun.

"Hey Max, where the hell have you been?" both of the girls paused. Fred then pointed his flashlight at his friend showing him still in his ODST outfit with the helmet still on him. When the three of them got a better view of him, he was almost covered with green stuff, "And what the fuck have you been doing on this mission?"

Max just ignored those questions and walked over to the stairs. Before he went up, he spoke, "don't mind the Elites, Grunts, and Hunters, they're on our side now." Then left.

'What does he mean by that?' Fred thought. Then two of the empty chairs at the table wobbled a bit. Sheena and Raine studied the chairs from where they were sitting.

"Hello humans!" then a Grunt and an Elite revealed themselves making Fred fall out of his seat frightened and accidentally bumped into his sniper rifle shooting out a round. The bullet went through ceiling. There was a moment of silence till…

"FRED!"

"Man, is that not going to sound good when I write the apology letter."

Next Morning at the MAC Cannon Base…

"Good morning Lieutenant, are you resting well after the Covenant ship incident?" Hoth asked. Max didn't say a word, yet he was still traumatized about yesterday. "Is something wrong Lieutenant?"

"…"

"May I try something human?" A Gold armored Elite standing beside the medic began. The General bobbed his head allowing the alien to take something out from underneath its armor. It looked like a leaf. Then the Elite crippled it and held it near Max's nose.

"Aw it smells like shit!" Max yelled when taking a sniff of the leaf witch made him snap out of his daze. He gazed around the room gathering what's happened, "um… sorry sir. I didn't know that I was still disturbed since yesterday."

"That's ok." The general then went over to his table and lit his pipe, "So today is a day of new allies is that correct?"

"Yes sir, the Elites, Grunts, and Hunters are now forming something called the New Covenant and they would like to form a treaty with the UNSC."

The general turned to the Elite, " and I take it that there's a Civil war in the this also?"

"That is correct… our Profits promised use safety from a doomed existence, but they, the Brutes, Jackals, and Drones betrayed us. So we took up arms and made a dacision to start a different and newer Great Journey." The Elite said.

'Sounds like a good enough speech. I wonder what the General is going to say?' Max then looked at Hoth folding his arms. Then the general stood up with a piece a paper and walked up to the Elite. Once he approached the Golden armored worrier, he held out a hand. 'Is that a good approach? A simple hand shake?'

The Elite stared down at the hand. Not knowing what to do, it lifted up its own hand and brought it closer to the other one. The General then finished closing the gap and locked hands to the agreement and truce.

'I guess that it ends this war with one half of the Covenant, now we only need to worry about the other half.'

Moments later after the word of a treaty between the New Covenant and the UNSC got out, everyone started to celebrate. The General and Max stood at the window watching UNSC personnel talking to a group of Grunts and stared at few more Covenant Phantoms that managed to escape from the Capital ship fly in and land dropping more allies, luckily not the Flood. (Yes… the surviving Covenant that were in the Brig and the Bridge.)

"You feel comfortable about this Lieutenant?" the General asked.

"Yes sir I fell ok with this." Then the medic looked out to the side, "Oh god…"

"What was that?" then Hoth saw what Max was seeing. A herd of Grunts and a Hunter were scampering down the path being chased by a person in an orange outfit with silver like hair…wait…. orange outfit with silver like hair?

"I'm going to have a long talk with the Professor about this." Max said, whacking his forehead.

"I'm sure you will. Why don't you keep that ODST uniform, it should be better then your Medical Combat Uniform."

A Few Minutes Later Outside…

"Raine! Stop chasing the nice little… things! And the big one too!" Genis yelled while tugging back on his sister's outfit.

"But I must! This is a very important discovery! Come back!" Raine managed to escape Genis' grasp and continued her pursuit.

"Runaway!" the Grunts cried in their usual high tone. When Raine was about to get her hands on another one, Lloyd and Sheena then restrained her from doing so. Colette and Kratos just stood to the side watching the whole event.

"Professor Sage calm down! You can examine them all you want some other time. Now come on, we have to look for Max."

"I'm right behind you Lloyd." Lloyd then let go of the Professor and turned around with a hand behind his head leaving Sheena to do the work for him.

"Hey Max, we noticed that the truce with this ugly alien people went smoothly. What should we do now?"

"Whatever you guys need to do for the world regeneration thing. We'll start from where you left off yesterday."

"Today the Professor said that we're going to the Tower of Mana to release another seal. Yesterday after you left to do your mission, we found Clara up in front of Hima's inn being attacked because she was still that monster form. She managed to get away but was still being followed by the warriors. After bumping into Colette and Professor Sage, she dropped the key to the tower. Is that enough information for ya?"

Max was a little confused but at least he understand tiny bit of it, "Uh… maybe… let's get started shall we, but first things first, stopping Raine from chasing our new allies is our main priority now."

A Moment and a Few Broken circuits later…

"So what do we have that's a problem?" Max asked the Pilot. Earlier the Max and the group was on their way to the Tower of Mana until they hit a little snag in the Pelican drop ships engine.

"Seems that three busted circuits and a dead battery. Give me a good thirty minutes and I'll have her up and running again." The pilot got out his tools and snapped to it. Max walked back to the group with the word.

"Well everyone, there was a little problem with one of the engines so it's going to be a thirty minute wait." Max began, "anybody have a way to pass time?"

Kratos, Genis, and Raine looked at one another and knew what to do, "Max, do you know any spells, healing magic, or sword techs?" Genis asked.

"No, why do you ask?"

"Because," Kratos cut in, "we think that you should be taught what we know. Besides, what would happen if you run out of those bullets for your gun or lost it?"

"Clearly I can see you point… hell with it! Let's start!"

Raine, Kratos, Genis, and Max went to a better wide-open area while Colette, Lloyd, and Sheena stayed back with the ship. They stood in a circle ready to teach. Kratos was fist to go. "Max, take out that energy sword and let's begin." Max did so and waited, "what I will teach you is Demon Fang. Do what I do." Kratos walked up to a tree but kept a good distance from it, "Demon Fang!" with on swing with his sword, which made contact with the ground, a shape made of light and fresh Mana move towards the tree with great speed. The tree was damaged, but not to damaged.

"Now you try it."

"Where to start is the question."

"Try and force some of the Mana in you to your hands and then transfer it to the sword. Concentrate it first, then try the swing that I did."

Max got in a ready position; he then focused the trillions of the amount of his Mana into his hand till he started to feel his palms tingle, 'funny… it fells like my hand's asleep.' Stepping in with a swing from his sword and the magic words, "Demon Fang!" a tremendous burst of energy shot out forcing him to fly on his back while the Mana in the Demon Fang cut the tree in half into a V shape.

Genis', Raine's, and Kratos' jaws hit the ground on what they just saw. Then they starred down at Max who was actually surprised also, "did I do that?" he asked. The three nodded and were afraid… very… very afraid, "uuuh… what's next?"

"Um, Fireball." Genis said as he walked up with his Kendama. He swung it around perfectly while casting. When finished, he yelled, "Fireball!" three balls of fire flue through the air striking a different tree only leaving some burn marks.

"So what? Do I have swing my weapons in the air too or something?"

"No, you can use you hands if you want. Colette does it when ever I see her use Angel Feathers."

"Right." Max puts away his sword and brings together his hands so that it shapes like a pistol. After copying the casting words that Genis spoken, he finally yelled, "Fireball!" he held out a hand and not just three balls of fire came out of his hand, but twelve! When the flaming balls of death hit the tree, it burst into flames and crumbled to the ground within seconds. 'God… let's just hope that doing these powerful spells doesn't reveal that I'm half Mana Carrier. Because I was told not to tell anyone… but this…could give it away damn it!'

The three looked at the flaming tree then back at Max again. Raine then went up to him, grabbed his shoulders, and started to shake him while asking, "What the hell are you! And how are you doing this!"

"I don't know! Ok? Now let go of me!" Max struggled out Raine's grasp, "now…what do you have to teach me Ms. Sage?"

"I'll show you… and it's 'Professor' Sage." She then turned to Kratos, "Kratos, can I see your arm please." Kratos did what she said and held out his arm for her, "thank you. Now this might sting… a lot." With her nails, she did a very violent scratch. Kratos twitched his eyes in pain. "Watch." She held her Battle Staff over the wound and spoke, "First Aid." With a green glow from the staff, the wound was healed.

"So… you expect me to do this with my hand also?"

"Definitely, now may I use your other arm Kratos?" the mercenary said nothing and back away. Then she looked over at her little brother Genis, but he too was backing out, "fine then." She rolled up the sleeve for her left arm and gave a strong, painful scratch. "N…now you give a shot."

'She's one crazy psycho bitch.' "Here we go then." Placing his hands over the wounds, Max concentrated, then, "First Aid." There was a quick flicker like the flash mode on a camera. Removing the hands, the wound was gone. He was able to heal cuts 4X faster then Kratos and Raine.

"If I put you on a test… you would pass."

Da Da Daaaaaa! Max learned "Omega Demon Fang" "Fireball Burst" and "First Aid Flash." (A.N. these are just moves and spells I made up for Max. I'm sure everyone is okay with that… not unless you have better names for the techs.)

"Max!" the group turned around and found Colette in front of them, "I came to tell you that the pilot is done with the repairs." She then looked at the area around her. A tree cut directly in half and another one burned to a crisp, "what happened here?"

"Him…" Genis and Raine spoke at the same time they pointed at Max, while Kratos began to walk to the Pelican.

"Hay, beginners luck ok? Come on guys let's get going."

The group of five went back to the drop ship where Lloyd, Sheena and the pilot were waiting. When on approach, Lloyd came up to them, "so how did go you guys? What did you teach him?"

"You're not going to believe this…"Genis began to tell him the whole story.

Sheena walked up to Max who was helping the pilot ready for take off, "so what did you learn?"

He stared at her for a few second before saying, "some crazy ass shit that I don't know much about."

"Watch what you say, cause those techs could save your life."

"It's most likely they will."

"Lieutenant…" the Pilot cut in, "we're taking off now, better buckle up."

"Right, you should return to your seat." Sheena bobbed her head and left the cockpit of the Pelican. After she left, the pilot pressed a button on the panel in front of him making the door shut tight behind her, "we don't need the door closed you know."

"I just want to talk to ya for a moment." The pilot then turned on the ships engines making it hover for a moment before it took flight, "ok Lieutenant, first question, do you think this worlds worth saving?"

Max gave a strange look at him, "what do you mean?"

"Well… what I'm trying to say is that we were stuck in this world for a month or so. Don't you think we should make this entire place UNSC territory?"

"Sgt. That kind of talk and thoughts could lead Earth into another war against our selves. Plus this world isn't even ours, so I say that this is neutral territory."

"But this is a new discovery and there are monsters and other creatures living here too."

"Listen! And the answer is no."

"Then why are fighting against the…"

"Desians?"

"Yeah!"

"Remember, the UNSC are peace keepers and we are meant to keep the peace. That's why we're fighting them while protecting this world. Now open the damn door."

"One last question…" Max looked at him trying to ignore the next topic, "does that girl in purple with big pink ribbon tied around her waist have a boyfriend? Cause she has a damn fine body."

Max didn't say a word and opened the door himself. As he walked out, Colette, Lloyd, and Sheena stared at him instantly after what they heard about his training.

"Is it true?" Lloyd asked

"The training? Uuuummmm… yeah."

"I keep telling you everyone," Kratos began to give his reason, "he forced too much Mana into his moves, that's why he was able to cast powerful spells."

"But using that much Mana would…" Genis was about to finish before…

"Where here! Tower of Mana!" The Pilot announced. The ship turn around allowing the group to look out the back at the tall… tall building.

"Whoa…" everybody said at the same time.

"Alright, we've landed, get going! And Lieutenant…" Max stopped next to the ship awaiting what the Pilot was going to say, "Remember the UNSC main word…"

"Hoo-rah!" the two said as the ship flew away.

"Max, come on!" Genis called out.

"Come 'n!" The medic in the black ODST outfit walked up to the rest of the group. He then let out a low whistle as he got a better view of the tower, "so this is the Tower of Mana… the tower that we almost crashed into a few days ago do to somebody's annoyance and the where the next seal is."

"Yep." Then Genis and Max watched Raine running franticly around the front of the building with hearts above her head.

"We must go inside!" She yelled cheerfully, "Lloyd! Use the key and open the door!" she then began to quickly push and pull the swordsman to the entrance.

"OK! OK! Here!" the door opened and everyone went in. The moment they walked into the room, the first thing they all saw were shelves loaded with books.

'I wonder if any of this books hold the answer about Mana Carriers?' Max thought.

"Look it's a Oracle!" everyone looked at the small podium like object in them middle of the room. Moments later after talking about tower, Colette finally placed her hand on the Oracle Stone and waited for a door to reveal…but nothing happened.

Colette tried again, but received the same results, "…" was the response from the entire group.

"What are we waiting for again? A vow of silence was it?" Max asked sarcastically.

"Wait a minute…"Raine then approached three circles that were placed neatly into the ground forming a triangle, "Lloyd, please walk on top of that circle, Max take that one in front of you, I'll do this one." The three each got on their own circle and waited some more. Then, a stone door on the other side of the room slid open.

"Oh look… our ticket up stairs. Let's get moving." The moment Max walked off the object he was on; the door immediately shut tight, "huh?"

"It would seem that some of us must stay behind while the others go on." Raine said while rubbing her chin.

"Who's going? Your choose Lloyd."

"Me? Uh… ok, Max do you want to come?"

"Of course! You two might need some gun support."

"Alright, what about you Sheena?"

"Sure, I'll go."

"It's settled, the four of you will work you way up the tower till you reach a point where we can come to. Let's begin." Raine, Genis, and Kratos walked over to the circles and stood there as the doors opened.

The group walked through the entrance and began their progress towards the top of the tower. Most of the trip there was a silent one. Did not in counter any monsters along the flight of spiral stairs. Nobody spoke until the four of them reached the top.

"Max," Sheena began, "what happened to you yesterday that made you completely spaced out?"

Max stopped dead in his tracks and turned quickly around facing her, "please… don't ask me that question again… remembering it just… disturbs me." Then something caught his ears, "you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Lloyd asked. Suddenly out of the darkness a living purple sword came flying at the medic. Max then backed up to dodge it, but he didn't know that he was backing up to the stairs. The sword missed him and disappeared somewhere else which was a good thing, but the bad part was a painful fall down a flight of steps.

Colette, Lloyd, and Sheena stood where they were before the surprise attack happened. There was a sudden pause till there was a voice calling out to them, "I'm ok! I am O-K!"

An Hour Or So Later After the Group Reunited…

"Hey Max, what happened to you?" Genis asked. Max was a complete wreck… most of the armor plates on his ODST uniform had multiple dents in it and his helmet had a little crack on the visor.

"…………Dude……Don't ask."

"Anyway here's the seal." Everyone looked around and noticed that they're on the very top of the tower.

"Uh oh!"

"What?"

"I'm sensing a strong amount of Mana coming from the Seal!" Just then, the seal exploded knocking Raine, Genis and Kratos off their feet, but Max, Sheena, Lloyd, and Colette standing. The four drawn their weapons and readied themselves. Standing before them, was something that like a huge horse like creature with wings and a spiked tail.

"It's an Iubaris!" Colette yelled.

"A What?" Max was shocked that that thing had a name. Before he could even cock his battle rifle, the Iubaris came charging at them. The four of them managed to dodge in time, but Max wasn't quick on his feet since he didn't quite understand how to use his Mana Carrier skills properly. The medic was almost trampled over, but lucky for him the hooves missed him by a few centimeters.

'That was to fucking close!' Max then noticed something, where's his gun? Looking around, he found it, but it was smash to bits. He reached to his holster to get out his M6C, but that was missing too, 'Damn! Must of lost it when I fell down the stairs.'

"Beast!"

"Pow Hammer!"

"Serpent Seal!"

The medic looked over at the others as they did their moves on the target, but had no effect at all. To Max, it was now or never, he brought his hands together and started casting. Sheena looked around and saw Max at work, 'what is he…?'

Before Sheena could finish her thought, Max held a hand, aimed it at the Iubaris and yelled, "Fireball Burst!" twelve balls of fire shot out of the palm of his hand. All twelve hit the guardian making it fall over on its side, hurt, but not dead.

"Wow! Max! That was amazing!" Sheena cheered. All Max could do was give her a thumb's up. But then something caught his eyes, the Iubaris spiked tale came out from nowhere behind the allied ninja about to hit her.

"SHEENA LOOK OUT!" The moment she heard him yell and turned around, it was already too late. The strength of the tale was so powerful that it sends her colliding into a nearby stone pillar. After impact her body slid to the ground showing her on her side, not moving. She was ether knocked out or… dead.

Max saw the whole thing; he stared at Sheena's motionless body and the little pool of blood next to her with the look of horror on his face, but could not be seen underneath his helmet. Then he felt something inside of him, it felt like emptiness or something that was taken away from his life, then was replaced by anger. He squeezed his hands tightly and took out his Energy Sword. Gritting his teeth, he yelled, "YOU MOTHER FUCKING BASTERD!"

He sprinted towards his target, weapon at the ready, speed increasing, billions amount of Mana building up in the hand holding the Sword, and adding all of this up, his about to give the Iubaris a final crushing blow.

What Lloyd saw, looked like Max just ran past the guardian without swinging his sword and stopped in his tracks. But seconds later, Iubaris' legs, wings, tale… and the head fell off at once, and to end it all, the body exploded. 'Holy cow…'

Max walked over to his fallen comrades body and collapsed to his knees. He stared at her body again, the bruises, cuts, and blood, but then he realized something, he took off the gloves to his ODST outfit and helmet, and he checked for a pulse.

'She still has a pulse…' his eyes widened, he was about to reach into one of his multiple pockets to get out some medical equipment until he remembered the First Aid Flash. He quickly placed his hands over Sheena's wounds and focused before saying, "First Aid Flash!" with a flash of light the wounds have healed. All Max could do now is wait.

He then held Sheena in his arms, closed his eyes and thought over and over again, 'please let her come through… please let her come through… please let her come through… please let her come through… please let her come through…'

"Max…" opening his eyes in shocked, he saw Sheena awake with her eyes half open, "Max…" she said again. Then tears started to form in her eyes and she began to cry, "Max!" she tackled Max in a hug and sobbed quietly on his shoulder, "I was so…scared." She said, "So scared…when that tale hit me."

"It's ok Sheena… I'm here." Max started to cradle her. In the mean time he saw the others over at the seal doing their part of the journey, "Can you walk?" Sheena said nothing but continuing to sob on his shoulder, "want me to carry you?" He felt her bob her head slowly. He stood up and turned around so that Sheena could get on his back.

"Alright, I think we're almost done with the journey. All we have to do is go to the Tower of Salvation." Lloyd announced, 'but…what will happen to Colette there? And what part of her humanity is she going to lose.'

"Where's Max and Sheena?" Kratos asked. Everyone looked around the top of the tower and found Max gave Sheena a piggyback ride with her arms locked around his neck and her head rest on the back of his neck, "there you are. How's Sheena?"

"She's a bit rattled up after the tale of that thing hit her. Can we get going?"

The group made their way down the tower till they went through the room full of books. Max gazed at the books and said in his own mind, 'maybe I'll come here another time and look for that book.' Outside was a Drop Ship that was waiting for them. With Sheena still in his arms, he sat down in one of the passanger seats and felt the ship lift off and flew to the Orbital MAC gun Base.

(A.N. If any of you are wondering how Max got off that Covenant Ship, it will be told next chapter.)


	15. Tales of Halo CH 26

CH. 26

History 

MAC gun Base, 23:47 Hours (11:47 PM)…

Max stood in front of the coffee machine in the chow hall (or cafeteria, whatever the military calls it) waiting for a cup to be served. The moment it was done, he took a sip and sat down at a nearby table. Some other marines came and went chatting about old war stories.

'Damn…what a day.' The medic thought. He sipped his coffee again and leaned back in his seat facing the ceiling. He then heard someone pulling out a seat next to him, but just ignored 'em.

"So Max, what did you do today?" immediately recognizing the voice of his friend Fred, Max stopped ignoring him and responded without turning his head.

"Let's see… first off is the truce thing that happened today, a little engine problem with one of the Pelican drop ships I was on today, I learned three techs from this world but two of them were spells, I walked up and crashed down a flight of stairs that was part of a twenty story tower, Sheena almost died from a huge monster, and last, the moment we got back here the Chosen, Colette, lost her voice do to that Angelictoxicosis." (Can't forget that part, I know.)

Fred stood up knowing that he couldn't suck in all that information and left the table, 'thought that might happen again for the eightieth time. He never stays around till others finish a long list of things.' When he was out of sight, again Max sat alone in the room. Then someone else took a seat across from him.

"Are you Max Demore, human?" Max snapped his head forward, till he faced a blue armored Elite.

"Yeah, why?" the medic asked.

"One of the High Counsel members had a conservation with your General. He mentioned you and your mission, so then I was assigned to work with you." There was a moment of silence between the alien and Max, "is there something wrong human?"

"No, but this will be the first time that I'll be partnering up with an Elite." 'This seems awkward, but I got to get use to it.' "Got a name?"

"Shego…"

"Shego, huh? Well… welcome aboard."

Da Da Daaa! Shego joined the party. (Yeah, I know, another character added to the story. How cool could it get? And yeah you maybe didn't see that coming.)

"Max, There you are." The medic and the Sangheili turned their heads towards a woman in an orange outfit.

"Hey Professor, how are Colette and the others?" Max asked when he drank the rest of his coffee.

"Colette's fine, the only way for her to communicate with others is to spell letters in the palm of someone's hand, and for everybody else, they're sleeping in the tents we're barrowing from the UNSC." Raine said

"Ok, why are you still up?"

"I was looking for you. Because I wanted to know if you could do a little job for me right now if your still… who's this?" Professor Sage then pointed at the Elite.

"This is Shego, he'll be joining us on this journey." Max then faced the Elite, "Shego, this is Professor Raine Sage. She's part of this Chosen's group that I've been traveling around with them for some time." He watched the two shake hands.

"Nice to meet you." "YES! SOMETHING TO STUDY MORE! HA HA HA HA HA HA!'

"So Professor, what did you want me to do again?"

Raine ended her thoughts of how will she study examine the alien… basically how to dissect the creature was one of here main thoughts. "Oh yes, I was wondering if you could go to the Tower of Mana right now and look for Boltzmen's Book. Can you?"

Max looked at a small digital watch that was part of his uniform. Remembering that he had forgotten something and that he would try to look for a book on Mana Carriers, he made his choice, "Sure, besides, I think I lost pistol there, are you coming too?"

"No, sorry that I can't, I'm too exhausted after healing everyone's wounds, but earlier today I thought you did a good job of using those spells without Kratos, Genis, and I helping you. And so you know, the techs were twisted versions of some of the spells we know and you should be tired too for using up too much Mana. Don't you feel tired?" Raine said.

"Not the tiniest bit… some how… Well, I should get going before it gets late." Max stood from the table, walked over to a trashcan to throw away the cup and turned to his new partner, "Shego, meet me and the Chosen's Group at Hima tomorrow morning at 1100 hours, understood?"

"Yes human." After the medic was out of the room, the Elite then felt something bothering him. The Sangheili saw Raine staring at him non-stop with twice… no make that three times as many hearts hovering her head, making him… uncomfortable, "why are you looking at me human?"

"I'm not a human, I'm an Elf."

"…Elf?"

After minutes of walking past rows of tents, ammunition booths, medical bunkers, and checkpoints, Max was finally made it to where he was going, the garage. He went up to a booth with a Sergeant ranking soldier in it. "Hello lieutenant, what can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if I could borrow a ATV for a few hours." The sergeant held out a keyboard with a hologram on the window between the two.

"Fill this out before you can get your ride" with several clicks from the keys, the form was filled. The sergeant examined it for a few seconds before he laid keys to one of the ATV, "alright, you're cleared. You'll be taking number ten, it's the first one you come across, can't miss it."

"Thanks." Max picked up the keys from the counter and wander past the line up of Warthogs, Scorpion Tanks, and lest, the ATVs. It wasn't hard to spot his ride; it had the number ten painted black on a part of the vehicle. He hopped on top of it and inserted the key feeling it come to life, 'let's go…' gripping the handles, he rode off driving past tents upon tents till he was out of the area.

The drive will be a long one, but he's able to stay awake for the trip there and back. But some thoughts and memories kept popping in his head from time to time…

Flash Back…

In The Armory of the Covenant Capital Ship….

An ODST troop and a Grunt peered through the crack of the door checking the hallway, "See anything you two?" Corporal Leon asked.

"Found no Flood." The Grunt said.

"Alright, everybody listen up," the group of fourteen glared at ODST team1's leader, "we're going to move fast, do not stop for anything except to help a soldier if he's in trouble. Get ready." The noise of multiple guns cocking and clicking sound of the Covenant weapons stands for that everyone was standing by for the run, "three… two… one… GO!"

The door slide open and three ODST troops jumped out, waving their guns around in the air looking for a target to shoot at, but non in sight. One of them did the "all clear" signal, so the rest of the group ran out from the room with Corrine following close behind towards the Boarding craft room.

When coming to a corner, "Wait!" a Grunt ordered. They pressed their backs against a wall and approached the Grunt. Max was first; he peeked with one eye around the corner above the new ally. What laid in front of him down the hall stunned him for a few seconds.

"What do you see Max?" Corrine asked. Max turned his head and was only able to say a few words.

"Those… those things are eating them…"

"What?" The surviving marine from Halo did the same thing that Max did, and too was stunned. A swarm of Infection Form Flood sat on top of the piles of dead Covenant and a few UNSC personnel sucking the blood out of them. "Grenades…" all of Team 1 unpinned their frags and tossed them around the corner. Four small explosions went off clearing the hall of any hostile targets, now that's what one of the Grunts thought.

"Let's make a break for… Waaaaaa!" a mutated form of an Elite came out of nowhere and attacked the Grunt.

"Holy fuck man! What the hell is that?" A marine fired his SMG wildly without even aiming. The Flood fell on top of the fallen ally, but time was running out. In the next ten minutes, they'll be blown to hell.

"Come on! We have to get the fuck out of here before we become part of this ships debris!" going through one final door they made it to their destination.

"Don't just stand there humans! Get on one!" the Elite ordered as it walked over to what seems to be a Covenant version of a telephone. "Hello brethrens are you there?"

"Yes we are here." the other line spoke, "we thought you were killed."

"Listen to me. We are abandoning the ship. Contact the survivors in the brig and tell them to make hast to the hanger with you and the others. Try and find any ships that can fly. Make sure you keep a good distance between you and the ship."

"What about you brother?"

"Me and our allies have made it to the Boarding craft hanger. We'll be leaving once I'm done." Gunfire could be heard from behind the Elite as Max and some ODST troops started firing into the swarm of Flood, "Now would be a good time."

"Hey Pal! Are you done with that thing yet? We gotta go!"

"Coming!" without warning, the door next to the Elite burst opened throwing him off his feet and into Corrine. Emerging from the dust, was a ten foot tall Juggernaut.

"What in god's name is that!"

All of the Grunts started shivering until they went into panic mode, "JUGGERNAUT! RUN AWAY!" cowardly, they ran into the ship yelling, "LITTLE PEOPLE FIRST!" then they began to fight over on who should press the launch button.

"Don't you dare press that button! Everyone's not on board yet!" they ODST team strafed backwards using whatever they can against it, Battle rifles, SMGs, pistols, Grenades, and… yeah… none of it worked.

Using its long tentacle arms, the Juggernaut swung and struck two soldiers killing them instantly towards the swarm of Flood, and one of them the Team 1s leader. They were way out numbered now. Eleven verse thousands… yeah that should be enough to get ya running.

Ship was ready to fly, nobody hesitated so they just jumped on quickly sealing the hatch behind them. "PUNCH IT DAMN IT!" after that order, the Grunt pilot took the controls of the spacecraft and launched.

After a few minutes or so of drifting through space, Corrine saw more then a dozen Phantoms and fighter crafts flying out of the hanger bay doors loaded with only New Covenant allies on a monitor.

A marine let out a sigh of relief and looked at Max, "Don't you think that was way to close to be Hell Doc? … Doc?" the medic said nothing and did not move a muscle.

The Grunt that was sitting next to Max climbed up his shoulder and took off his helmet. The look on his face was horrible. His eyes were wide with his jaw hung down. The alien put the helmet back on.

"He's fine"

Then the marine's radio began to beep constantly. Then he listened to a conversation that was between two people, "Sir, Covenant ships inbound, cannons and turrets are almost ready. Waiting at your mark."

"NO! NO!" a soldier cried, "This is private Tanaka! Hold you fire! I repeat! Hold your fire on those Phantoms! They're full of other surviving UNSC personnel and our new allies! Fire at the Capital ship!"

"……… Who is this again? And what was that about new allies?"

Corrine then went over to the Pilot of the ship to ask one very important question, "Can this thing stay together while entering the atmosphere?"

End of Flash Back…

Finally at his Destination, Max was yet again at the Tower of Mana for the second time. He parked his vehicle near the foot of the stairs in front of the entrance. Walking into the same room full of books, he began his search.

"First off, better look for that Boltzmen's Book before I forget." Over in the corner of the room on one of the bookshelves, was a fat book that looked like it was five inches thick. On the spine of it said, "Boltzmen's Book of Healing Arts".

"That's wasn't to difficult. Now, on to find a book on Mana Carriers." Max tried looking for it alphabetically, and that attempt failed miserably. Then he checked the books that started with 'M' but…

Three Hours Later…

"What the fuck… I used every kind of strategy to find the damn thing and in the end I get nothing except shit." Max said to himself as he sat with in the piles of books leaving all the shelves bear, "better call it a night after this last book." He picked the last book that was covered with dust, with a lock keeping it close at all times, and had the title on the front that said "Se Ma Car" in gold letters.

'SE MA CAR? THAT'S IT! SCREAW IT ALL! I'M GOING TO GET MY GUN NOW!' he slammed the book at the Oracle Stone while marching over to the door he first entered and found it the moment he got there. Grabbing the rest of his gear he was walking towards he exit thinking, 'Se Ma Car, which retard would gave a book that kind of…name.' Stopping dead in his tracks with his brain think of millions of possibilities that he might be right, and/or wrong.

"Is it possible?" he moved back to the book and examined the title more. He sniffed it a bit and noticed the smell, "paint…" with one finger he scrapped away paint and some parts of gold was starting to show. With a shocking discovery the book title now said, "Secrets of the Mana Carriers".

"God! Yes! Finally! Here's the book I've been looking for. Now let's open it." The lock on it was a tough one since it was magically sealed shut. Tearing it open to Shooting it open never worked, it just caused more frustration, "fuck this crap. I'm taking it with me." He then tucked the book underneath his chest armor for hiding from the others and not losing it easily. Now, he can take it easy.

Hours later at the MAC Gun Base…

"So Fred, anything you did interesting today?" a Female officer asked.

"Nothing really Sara. Just hung around at the shooting range practicing. What about you?" Fred responded while he assembled and disassembled his rifle.

"I looked over the map of this world and found nothing much about it. It was a complete waist of my time."

The door opened between the two revealing a person who they never thought to see out this late at night, the General. They saluted and Hoth did the same thing saying, "at ease."

"Can we help you with something sir?" the officer asked.

"Yes, here." He then gave each of them an envelope with their orders inside, "the two of you and more UNSC personnel and New Covenant will be leaving at 1000 hours today. Read these for further information. That is all." Hoth then left closing the door behind him.

Fred and the officer looked at each other before opening the envelopes. Reading the small piece of paper for their mission didn't sound quite exciting. Just then, Max came walking by exhausted by driving and looking through hundred of books.

"Hey Max, where have you been?" Fred asked in the same time he put away his orders.

"Just went out to get a book from the place I was at yesterday. It was a royal pain in the ass to find the damn thing." 'It was the Mana Carrier book that was the problem, not the Boltzmen's book.'

"Where are you going now?"

"Bed…"

"Wise choice. Night."

"Likewise." Max left with a yawn. When he was outside, he saw Kratos standing next to his tent, it looked like he was talking to someone. "Hey Kratos," with great agility and reflexes the mercenary drew his sword and came in aiming the point at Max's throat.

Countering it, Max moved a bit to the right so that he can come to the dead side. In a blink of an eye, Kratos didn't know what happened, he held his weapon out in midair and Max was standing really close with his pistol's barrel pressed against his throat. (Backfired…)

"Oh it's only you Max. Take your helmet off next time." both of them lowered their weapons.

"Yeah, it's me. You were talking to some one. Who was it?" Then a giant dog with long big ears and white and teal fur came out from behind Kratos, 'And I thought Russian Wolf Hounds were the biggest dogs on earth. But this one is freak 'n huge! God it freaks me out! '

"I was talking to Noishe."

"How? Dogs don't talk." Noishe whimpered a bit nudging Max's shoulder towards one of the tents, "What's wrong?" Then Colette emerged from one of the tents wondering what happening outside, "Nothing to worry about Colette. Everything's fine." Letting out a sigh in relief and went back into her tent. Continuously, Noishe kept nudging the medics shoulder with its noise, "Noishe, stop it. What's the matter with you?"

"I think he wants you to go check on Sheena." Max wiped around to Kratos with a strange look on his face but was blocked by the visor.

"Wha?" he looked back at Sheena's tent with his senses and heard her talking in her sleep.

"No… everybody… runaway… Volt is… Grandpa… every… one." That's what Max can hear from the tent.

"Sigh… I'll go see what's the matter." 'Sheena's just having a… one hell of a bad day.' Max went to the flap and knocked lightly on the pole supporting it. "Sheena," Max whispered, "Sheena is everything alright?" before coming in to check, he took off his helmet so that he wouldn't spook her again. He peeked his head in before putting the rest of himself in the tent.

"Max?" the medic looked down where Corrine was sitting, "did you hear her outside?"

"Kind of. Noishe kept nagging on my shoulder wanting me to come in here. Can you fill me in? Nightmare or something?"

"Yeah, well it's a… long story. You might want to hear it from her." A ruffling sound of a person turning over entered both of their ears even though it was the sleeping Sheena toss and turning.

"So she's remembering a horrible memory." Corrine nodded, "How long has she been having this dream?"

"Almost eight years now. It's horrible!" The fox like summon sprite looked around in panic, "Say, can you stay and give her company for a while? Cause I got to go."

"Go? Go where?"

"No! I got to go." Then Corrine sprinted out as fast as he could to a nearby… tree… or something like that. (Or a fire hydrant, lol.)

"He should've been more specific about that." He took a seat on the ground next to the cot that Sheena was in and lied down. Making sure that she was asleep, he reached underneath his chest armor quietly and pulled out the book he 'barrowed' from the Tower of Mana.

'Now… why won't this open?' He took out a paper clip and bent it so that he can pick the lock. When he thinks he has it, the book randomly warns him by sending electricity up the metal object and shocking him completely, 'Ow…That's smarts.'

Seconds later, he picked up a sound from outside. It sounded like the subject was running, 'crap, Corrine's coming back, better move fast.' He slid the book into his hiding place and acted like he was before he took out the book.

"Ok, I'm back, is everything ok?"

"Yep no problems." Max was about to leave till he heard Sheena continuing to talk in her sleep.

"Please… someone… help me…"

Max stood silently next to the cot glancing down at her worried, "Hey Corrine," the two looked at each other, "Do you want me to sleep in here? You know, give her some company."

"I think she'll like that. But where are you…?"

"The ground."

"Then what are you going to use to keep…?"

"This ODST outfit's made to handle the coldest weather. That's why it was made for space."

"Ok, Goodnight then." After Corrine sleep Max laid back down on the ground where he was before. Then he too, fell asleep.

A.N. If you have any questions about our new Elite friend Shego, please feel free to ask.


	16. Tales of Halo CH 27

CH. 27

A New Situation

Crashed MAC Gun Base, 1024 Hours…

"Hey Lloyd?" Genis began as him and Lloyd walked to the chow hall for some breakfast, "have you seen Raine this morning? I didn't find her in her tent this morning."

"No I haven't. Ever since these New Covenant guys came in, she's been in Ruin Mode nonstop." Then a group of marines came running past them towards the launch pad, "Gosh, lots of UNSC soldiers must be in quiet a hurry today. I wonder what's going on?"

The two walked in the room to find the place almost empty, "Say, isn't this place suppose to be packed everyday?" They took a tray a started browsing for some food at the buffet. Genis made himself a turkey sandwich and for Lloyd… uh, he just put a pile of meat of all kinds.

After finding a seat for themselves, they began eating, "we're going to the tower of Salvation today right?" Lloyd asked as he stuffed his mouth with beef.

"Yeah but first we need to heal Pietro from his illness, I heard that Max went to find Boltzmen's book late last night. I wonder if he found it?"

"Who knows?" the swordsman looked towards the entrance to find some familiar faces, "Ah, here come the others now." Raine, Sheena, and Colette were accounted for except for Max and Kratos.

"**Good morning Lloyd." **Colette wrote down on a piece of paper.

"Good morning Colette, where's Max and Kratos?"

"Kratos said he was going to the armory to look for Max." answered Sheena, and then Genis caught what looked to be a blush on her face.

"Sheena… are you feeling fine?"

"Y-yeah…" she says quickly then thought, 'It's been only an hour since I woke up finding Max in my tent, why am I still blushing?'

"She's ok Genis," Raine said from the buffet, "I think she's still jumpy about me chasing a Grunt into her tent earlier."

An Hour Earlier…

Raine spent most of the night pursuing a specific Grunt. She walk past a trashcan calling out, "Come out Grunt! I just want to ask you a few more questions about that huge horn like object on your back!"

After the nutty professor ran around the corner, all the trash in the can erupted with… trash and fell over. "Oh God!" the missing Grunt yelled as he crawled out of the can with a banana peal on his head. 'Better find that human who travels with that Chosen's group I heard about before that woman that also travels with them kills me.'

**Ka-Pow!**

The next thing the little alien never thought would happen to soon was Raine suddenly doing a dive tackle to catch him, "Gotcha!" the two kept flying forward into a tent… Sheena's tent… or rather… Sheena and Max's tent.

When there was a loud enough noise to wake everyone in the tent, Sheena rolled over to get out her cards, but fell off her cot in the process. She landed on something hard, and her lips planted on something smooth, cold metallic. When she leaned back to see what she landed on, she was completely shocked, she was now on top of Max and he had his helmet still on.

"Um… what just happened?" Max asked as he saw Sheena pull back a hand, "What are you doing?"

"Sorry…" she said trying to make this the only way to make an excuse and hide the blush on her face.

End of Flashback…

The Armory…

"Alright lieutenant," the weapons expert working in the armory where Max was right now, "You request on having an Assault Rifle and you're trading your M6C for an M6D, is that correct?" the medic bobbed his head and the helmet he still has on, "Can I see some ID?" Max did what the soldier asked for and handed him his identification card, but the man wanted more than just a card, "I need to see your face too lieutenant."

Max let out a low sigh and did what weapons expert asked for and removed the helmet. There was a long pause in the room full of weapons till the marine showed a smirk on his face. At this very moment on Max's face, was a red handprint on his right cheek.

"Eeehhh… any thing else you need?"

"Is it possible you can get me a slap proof helmet, cause that would be helpful against a person who misunderstands the situation around them. Do you have one?"

"No, but I can give you a bayonet." The soldier placed the combat knife on the table next to the weapons, "Alright you're now set."

"Thanks." Max placed his M6C pistol right where the combat knife was and picked up the weapons he will be using, "Before I go, I noticed that a lot of UNSC personnel were leaving to go somewhere, what's the word about that?"

"I don't know all of the details, but I did hear that General Hoth wanted to make another command center in a desert or something like a desert."

After he finished, Kratos came in to find his medic friend, "Max, I was looking for you, we need to talk."

"So what do you need to talk about?" Max asked as him and Kratos walked out of the armory towards Hima.

"Max, if things go bad here, I want you and the UNSC to leave this world as soon as possible." Max stopped in his tracks and looked at him because he has no idea what's going on.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't worry about it."

Then Max heard footsteps coming up fast behind the two of them and stopped, "Max! Kratos! Look out!" immediately, Kratos swung around his sword striking an assassin with long blue hair.

"Freeze!" Max yelled as he weald out his M6D. In a split second, the assassin disappeared into thin air, "what the? Who the hell was that?"

"Max, Kratos, are you two ok?" two put away their weapons and saw Lloyd coming towards them.

"Yeah we're fine, thanks for give us the heads up."

"It was nothing. But who was that guy?"

"It must be that assassin I presume." Kratos said then looked at the young swordsman, "Lloyd,"

"What?" then a moment of silence, "Why are you staring at me?"

"Whatever happens, don't die Lloyd." Kratos walked off ahead leaving Max and Lloyd totally confused.

"Why would he say something like that after what happened a while ago?"

"No idea… let's get going, everyone else should be at Hima by now, and I should introduce you and the others to someone that will be going with us the rest of the way of the journey." after minutes of walking, they made it to Hima, and waiting for them at the entrance, was Shego the Elite and Professor Sage. "Hey Shego, I see that you must have been studying your maps to find this place."

"It wasn't that difficult human."

Max put a hand over his visor and corrected him, "it's Max. You don't need to call me human or anyone else in the group that cause we have names."

"Matt?"

"No, Max… M-A-X."

"Matz?"

"………………… Sigh… close enough. Hey Professor, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine, did you find Boltzmen's Book last night?" with those words, Max pulled out the book and handed it to Raine. She opened it to the index, then to the page for Pietro's cure.

"Ah! It says here that the items we'll need is a Unicorns Horn or a Mana leaf. A few days ago we did acquired the horn. Come take a look at the words to cast it." The Medic did so and read its magic words.

"Bring back the souls of bereavement… Resurrection. Hm, sounds cool, will it work?"

Da Da Daaaa Max and Raine learned Resurrection!

"This is the famous Boltzmen's Book right? Of course it will work. Come on, and you two wait right there." The professor grabbed Max by the arm and dragged him into the inn leaving Shego and Lloyd to wait outside.

Lloyd then broke the silence, "The Professor is starting to creep me out a little after you guys showed up."

"Sorry if we have human."

Max and Raine walked into the room where Pietro was, still asleep and nothing else, "We have found the cure." The Professor spoke, "we must heal him now, Max you have the honor of trying first."

"What!" He yelled, "What happens if I screw it all up?"

"Just stay calm and everything will be fine, now begin."

Letting out a sigh, Max approached the bed and began to cast, "Here goes nothing… Bring back the souls of bereavement…Resurrection!" there was a bright light hovering over Pietro. Seconds later, he rose from his bed cured.

"Wha…Where am I?" were his first words.

"Pietro! Your awake" the woman standing next to his bed said.

"Sister! So… I have made it to Hima." Pietro turned to Max and Raine, "Where's Sheena? I must thank her rescuing me from the Desians, and I must thank who ever cured me from my illness"

Raine went up to Max from behind and pat him on the shoulder saying, "Sheena's up on the top of Hima with the Chosen's group and the person that healed you was Max here." Then with stealth, she tried to take the hand that was on his shoulder and traveled it to one of the pockets trying to steal something from him to study more.

"No Raine, that pocket is a big 'NO NO'." then her hand drew back quickly and notice how fast he realized that she was do a pickpocket.

"Max is it? I must thank you for curing me. I need to tell this UNSC army about the Ranch and about Kvar's…"

"No worries, our forces cleared that place out days ago and all the hostages in the base were rescued too."

"Did you do anything on the Mana Cannon?

HHHHHHHHHHHHH

Max, Lloyd, Raine, and Shego started their walk up the hill and met the others there looking at a good view of the Tower of Salvation. "Hey guys enjoying the sight now are ya?" 'That's a damn big tower, I wonder how it stands still without losing its balance.'

"Kind of, we're trying to see if there is an alternate route to it. You wouldn't happen to know one do you?" said Genis.

"Don't forget Genis," The Professor began, "That man offered us some Dragons to ride there."

"Dragons?"

Then while that conversation was going on, there was something Sheena wanted to tell them, "Everyone, I have something to say…"

Fifteen Minutes Later…

"So… let me get this strait… on the last minute before we head out, you tell us that the reason you tried to kill Colette and that you're from this world called Tethe'alla that's a shifted dimension to this world… correct?" Max, Shego, Lloyd, Colette and everyone else were making sure they heard properly after Sheena told them about her mission and Tethe'alla.

"Yeah."

Max felt like he was going to snap, but he held it back, "Sheena… we had the plenty of time before, you could have told this."

"I know, but I couldn't tell you right away, I had to wait for a good time to say it."

"So you tell us this now."

"I'm sorry but I don't know what to do now since Colette is close to the end of this journey."

Genis then spoke, "But now you're helping use right?"

"Yes but that means I just can't abandon Tethe'alla. Is there a way to make Colette and Tethe'alla both be happy?"

"I don't know Sheena, all we can do now is ask that Remiel guy if there is a way."

"Hello Everybody! I brought four dragons for eight peo…" the owner of the dragons paused as he saw the Elite with the group, "I mean, seven people and an a Covenant soldier. Please send my babies back when you all safely get there."

Shego thought for the moment and realized something, "Matz, how are we to get back after we're finished there?"

'Matz?' everyone thought at same time except for Max, Lloyd and Raine.

"Maybe we'll call for a ship to pick us up or celebrate by walking back, depends on how we all feel." The medic walked over to a Dragon ready to fly. Kratos got on one also saying informing everyone that he would be on the same one as Colette. Genis and Raine will share another. "Alright who's riding with me?" right then there Max felt some one clime on behind him and noticed a pair of hands wrapped around his waist. Turning his head to the side to find Sheena. When he saw her face, it seemed like she was nervous about something and might be trying to hide a little blush on her face. "Nervous?"

"Kind of." Sheena began, "I wonder what will happen to Tethe'alla when Colette…"

"We'll worry about once we get there. Ready?"

"Yes" after those words the wings of the dragon flue off the ground towards the Tower of Salvation, leaving Lloyd and Shego to share a dragon.

"Hey Shego, what wanted you to come along with us?" Lloyd asked as he prepared the rains.

"It was an order from a member of the high council."

"High what? Anyway let's get going!" then the two were off following the others.

For Max it seemed like thirty minutes of being in the sky. He kept his eyes focused on the tower in front of him, as it got bigger. Peering up at the building, he couldn't believe how tall it was, it just kept going up until it was out of sight. "Max?"

Max chain of thoughts was broken by Sheena's voice, "Yeah?"

"The day we went into the Asgard Ranch, Colette told me that she heard from Genis and Kratos that your Mana was incredibly high, and that you could annihilate an army bigger then yours by yourself, is it possible for you to do that?"

Max stared out in the opened silently thinking, 'Oh no, it seems that three people are on to me.' "The Mana thing I don't really know because we don't have magic and monsters where I come from and for facing an army by myself would not be something I would do."

"What about yesterday when you learned how to do those techs?"

"Kratos said that I forced to much Mana into the spells."

"But you should have been extremely exhausted from Mana depletion, why hasn't that happened to you yet?"

'Better think science…' "What if I'm actually using a small amount of Mana?"

"That's Impossible, it always has been like this, 'Powerful spell take up lots of Mana'."

"Let talk about this later, we've arrived." Max controlled the dragon to land near the tower and by a group of other baby dragons ready to fly back. Once they were on the ground, Max and Sheena jumped off and quickly made haste to the entrance of the tower. Upon arriving there, they found Lloyd, Shego, Raine, and Genis waiting for them, "sorry to keep you all waiting, where's Colette and Kratos?"

"It would appear that they have already gone in." Shego said which was quit obvious.

"Then what the hell are you standing around here for! You should have gone in there to make sure nothing was going to go wrong! In fact! We should bust in there right now!" with those orders, the group rushed in. The moment they were running across what seemed to be a transparent bridge, something caught Lloyd's eyes, corpses in coffins spiraling upwards.

"T-there bodies!" the swordsman exclaimed, "Why are there bodies?"

"This must be true hell." Max said next.

"Maybe… these are the Chosen's that failed up until now."

"Wait, if Colette fails, she might end up like this? Damn it! We have to find her before anything bad happens!"

Going through one last teleporter, they made it to the right room. (I'm sure you know what the room I'm talking about looks like.) In the center was Colette, down on her knees praying. Then there was a bright light revealing a man in the air with wings, the man was also in a green outfit with a hat, and had short blond hair. He floated close to the ground and stopped. "The Chosen of Mana, you may say your offerings." Remiel said, and then said some other words Max and Shego didn't catch.

"Following along at any of this Matz? I don't under what he's saying."

"Me nether."

Then Remiel began to speak again, "The end of your long journey ends now when you offer your body and soul to complete it."

Lloyd wasn't understanding what he was trying to say, "Professor Sage what is he talking about?"

"Forgive me for not saying anything, I promised Colette that I wouldn't say anything. Becoming an Angel… means dying." Raine said.

"Not quite. She will become Martel's vessel, the only way to save this world."

"You can't! Are you really planning to die?" Sheena asked.

"Remiel dude," Max walked forward with his fingers on the trigger of his assault rifle, "we heard of a another world called Tethe'alla that's twisted up with Sylvarant."

"That is not of you to know."

"You kept that a secret from us cause it's true, correct?"

"… If the Chosen completes this ritual, both of the two worlds will be saved at once." Remiel said trying not blow his cover about his plan, "is that what you want, Colette?"

She began to walk towards the Angel without a word till Lloyd came forth worrying about the Chosen, "Remiel! Is there really no other way? Colette's your daughter!"

"My daughter? Don't make me laugh."

"W…what?"

"Now Colette, come join your father…"

Lloyd was about to go in and get her, but was then stopped by Genis, "Genis! Let go!"

"Lloyd, I know how you feel, but the people of Sylvarant are suffering too." When Colette was getting closer, Lloyd freed himself from Genis' grip and jumped up to stop her from getting nearer. "Colette!"

Then to his surprise, Colette started to speak… without moving her lips that is, "**Lloyd it's alright, I knew Remiel wasn't my father.**"

"Colette, if you do this, there's no telling what might happen to you and us. We'll miss you."

"**You can hear me? I'm so happy.**"

"Colette I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I promised that I wouldn't make another mistake! But it looks like I have again."

"**It's not your fault. I didn't want to worry everyone, I wanted it to be fun.**" Just then she was about to float up with her wings to finish the journey, or what she seemed to be the end of it.

As the Max was watching this, he looked at Remiel and saw his grin that no one else could see. His back spine felt like it was being poked by hundreds of needles, 'something's bound to go wrong any minute now.'

Seconds later, Colette completed the ritual and was now like a puppet floating in the air, "Ha ha ha! I didn't!" Remiel laughed as the ritual was finished, "I will become one of the Four Seraphim!"

"Wait a second!" Sheena barked, "What are you going to do with Colette?"

"He's taking her to heaven."

"Hold on Raine, didn't he say that she's going to become Martel's vessel? If I was her, it would be true hell for me." Said Max, "And I would like to announce, this all might have been a trick for us to get her here."

"I see that you figured that out quickly for a human." Remiel closed his eyes, and lowered his head with a smile.

"You basted! You'll pay for this, the angels, Cruxis, it was nothing but a lie!" Lloyd put his hand into a fist now knowing the truth.

"I have no further need of you, be gone!" with one wave from his hand, some invisible force pushed the swordsman off the stage to the ground in front of Genis' feet. The group, wield their weapons, Lloyd's twin blades, Genis' Kendama, Raine's staff, Sheena's spell cards, Max's assault rifle, and for Shego, he reached behind him then took out two and I mean two Energy Swords.

"His head will make an excellent trophy." Shego charged in without thinking using a Covenant version of Techs, "Hunter's Rage!" he then swung his weapons like how a Hunter would do a melee attack on its target. To the Elites surprise, the Cruxis Angel managed to block both Plasma Swords with his hands some how.

"Weak!" then another unseen force knocked Shego to the side making him drop both of his swords.

"Shego! Are you alright?" the alien bobbed its head to Max and stood back on his feet while picking up his weapons, "if you're going in there again, I would ask not to do that cause you could get the same results. We need a good game plan." He then pointed to Lloyd and Sheena, "Sheena, Lloyd, Shego, you three will attack from behind while me, Genis, and Raine will distract him from the front, Go!"

'He managed to come up a unison order, will it work?' Raine thought as she prepared her staff.

The order was given, Lloyd and Sheena sprinted one way while Shego went around another. Max gave the signal to the two elves and they began casting.

"Thunder!"

"Photon!"

"Fireball Burst!"

Max's spell lowered Remiel's defense, the Photon made him drop his guard, and Genis' Thunder move fried him.

"Now!" the attackers from behind got their timing right and struck him hard.

"Heavy Tiger Blade!"

"Pyre Seal!"

"Brute's Fist!" (Shego's 'Brute's Fist' is when Shego hits his enemies with the handles of the Energy Swords.)

After six attacks had struck him, Remiel was now dizzy. Lloyd thought this would be a good chance to annihilate his enemy once and for all. But as soon he was close, the Angel could focus now.

"Your too slow… Judgment!" it hit them all without warning, beams of light fell from above striking random places of the area. Raine and Genis weren't to luck dodging them. When the spell was over Max drew his Energy Sword, and then he came in close enough to attack.

"Omega Demon Fang!" Remiel moved to the side hoping to avoid it, but wasn't fast enough on his feet. The huge attack had cut off… the Cruxis Angel's right arm. He yelled in pain and fell to the ground. The battle will soon be over for him.

Shego and Sheena went to aid the two elves while both Max and Lloyd tried as hard as they can to talk to Colette, "Colette come back to us! We'll turn you back to your normal self I promise!" In the end, she didn't a word, "Colette… have you really forgotten me?"

"You're wasting your breath. She has lost the will to speak and to listen to your words. So now she's a puppet stand nearly at death's doorstep."

Everyone snapped their heads up towards the stage, standing there was Kratos with his arms folded, "Kratos! Where the fuck have you been! And we want strait answers damn it!" Max said.

"L-lord Kratos…" Max's eyes went wide and looked over at Remiel who was on the ground dying, "…have pity on me… please… lean me your aid."

'Lord Kratos?'

"Have you already forgotten? I was once something called a human before. Do you think I would lean you my help even if you're a class below me?"

With one last breath, Remiel laid motionless on the ground, "Alright! Who the hell are you Kratos? If that's you name."

"My name is Kratos and I am one of the Four Seraphim, a member of Cruxis." Then he revealed his wings that were just like Colette's and his Exsphare.

Sheena realized it and so did the others that were not knocked out cold, "He's an angel too?"

"Then does that mean you deceived us?" Shego asks.

Max then spoke, "if he just deceived us, does that mean I should pop one in him right now?"

"Then if that's how it's going to be, then don't hold back."

"Gladly." With those words, Max makes a click sound with his assault rifle and the others behind him drew their weapons too.


	17. Tales of Halo CH 28

CH. 28

The Leader of Cruxis

"You ready guys?" Lloyd, Shego, and Sheena nodded to Max, "then let's do this…" before they could make their move, Kratos struck first.

"Greave!"

From the Seraphim's sight, he saw an enormous stone spike shot out from the ground where Max was standing along with four other stone spikes hitting the same target from different angles, but it also created a large cloud of dust. Everyone looked up where Max's bloody corpse would have been, on the tip of the spikes. The cloud then cleared up, and the only thing there was the front end of his rifle.

'What happened to him?' Lloyd thought. Suddenly without warning to Kratos, three shots of gunfire came from between the gaps of the spikes towards the traitor. He managed to bring up his Guardian move to block all three bullets, once it was down an extra one came at him. Stepping to the side, he dodged it letting it give him a small graze on his leg.

"You've survived it? I didn't even see you move before it came." Kratos said. Then Max came crawling out with his pistol in one hand and the back half of his assault rifle in the other.

"Max, are you okay?" Lloyd asked.

"That son of a bitch broke my gun, and this is the third one in one month!" 'And that slow mo thing happened again before that spike went up my ass. Good thing no one noticed.'

"I will begin the attack." Shego charged in once again, same thing as before… again landed flat on the ground in front of the group.

"Shego, you should've realized this by now is that you're not going to get him like that." The Elite looked up at Sheena, "the only way to defeat him is teamwork. Max!"

"Way ahead of ya!" then Max ignited his energy sword and went around to the side, while Sheena jumped high in the air ready to bring her cards down on their enemy. Kratos brought up his sword and shield to block the attack. Mean while, Max came in at the perfect time while Kratos' weapons were protecting himself from Sheena's cards.

In the corner of Kratos' eyes, he saw Max about to thrust his sword into his side. Quick enough, he brought his own sword from Sheena's attack to block the medic's saber. So now, the Seraphim was blocking Max's energy sword with his sword while his shield defended against Sheena's strike.

'No way…' Max thought, 'his sword can somehow block mine without getting chopped in half.' He looked over at Lloyd and Shego waiting for the word, "Lloyd! Shego! Attack now! He's wide open in the front!"

"Alright! Super Sonic Thrust!"

"Brutes Fist!"

The strength of the two's moves sent Kratos fly back colliding with the stage, and Lloyd wasn't done yet.

"Are you ready for this? Hunting Beast!" the tech immediately sent Kratos to the top of the stage badly wounded. He was down on one knee wounded till Lloyd went up after him, "it's time to finish this!"

Sudden before Lloyd could end it, a bright light interfered. Genis was finally conscious, he looked up the light… then he blacked out again. Standing before Lloyd, was another Cruxis Angel, but his wings were in a pattern and the colors were too, he had long blond hair that went past his shoulders, and he was in a white suit.

"I see Kratos, that you could be defeat against beings…" he then looks over at Lloyd and said, "Are you Lloyd?"

"Give me your name and I shall give you mine."

"I don't think I should give my name to a amateur swordsman."

"What did you say!" Lloyd said with anger as he gripped his swords.

"Fine then you filthy human I will give you my name. I am Lord Yggdrasill, leader of Cruxis."

"Hey! Mister Yap Yap!" Lloyd and the Cruxis leader looked over a Max, "if you wanna know what's best for ya! You're going to give us back our friend."

"Want to know what's best for you?" without warning, Yggdrasill teleported.

"He's gone." Shego said while he kept a firm grip on his energy swords. Then with a light tap on Max's left shoulder, and then came the pain from a thin light beam going right through were he was touched. "Matz!" when Shego turned to his ally, he saw Yggdrasill behind him shooting what looked like an enormous needle of light through his shoulder. Before the Elite could do anything, the Seraphim put up his free hand at him and a beam of light made contact with him. Shego went flying back colliding the wall of the stage, luckily his shield protected him from the blast, but for the unlucky part he was rewarded by getting knocked out when he bashed into the wall.

"Max!" Lloyd came in next ready to cut off his enemy's head, but with the same hand, Yggdrasill sent him flying into a pillar. (Yeah, you know what happens.)

"How does the pain feel?" Max said nothing and just grid his teeth, "and there will be more pain for you… and for your UNSC army." Then the Cruxis leader pulled out the huge needle from the medics shoulder, and with quick speed and strength he was able to force Max's body was turned around. The beam off light vaporized into the air leaving Yggdrasill's hand clear. He placed his palm on Max's chest plate of his uniform where his hart should be, "it was nice to know you… now parash."

'No…' then an enormous blast shot him and he went flying till he hit a different pillar. Now there was a huge chunk of his chest plate missing. He fell forward laying flat on the ground motionless thinking, 'am I going to die this time? Or am I going to have another near death experience?'

"Be prepared to greet you fellow comrades once you…"

"Forgetting someone pal!" in the corner of the Cruxis leader's eye, was Sheena. She managed to hit him a few times before the angel grabbed one of her hands that was about to strike him again. With a powerful swing with his arm, he tossed her over next to Shego. Slowly he walked up to the ninja with a hand held back charging up with Mana.

"Ready to share the same fate as your friends?" when Yggdrasill was within arm length, he launched his hand out about to do the same move he did on Max. Sheena peered up and saw what was coming. She quickly put her arms in front of herself awaiting the blow. Seconds later it never came, "Still alive I see. Very impressive."

'Still alive?' it came to a shock to her, Max… was alive with blood spreading on his shoulder and standing in front of the Seraphim using his bad arm (the one that had the needle stuck through 'em) to block his attack. It didn't take long for Sheena to realize something about him, his shoulder and the rest of his body were shivering, 'He's… shaking in… pain. He can't defend him long.' Glancing down, she saw a red puddle, a puddle of blood. She found the source of where it was coming from, from Max's wound. The red fluid traveled down from his shoulder to the elbow, the more force he puts into the block, the faster the blood pours, "Max…" she spoke softly.

"Want more?" with a wave with his free hand, a strange sword, rose from the center of the room. A second later, it sent a shock wave tossing Max into the wall. With great force, it pushed the medic on the wall so hard and fast that it made him create a small crater.

'No…' Sheena watched as Max's body fell to the ground again. After he fell, he did not show a sign of life.

"I really enjoyed fighting with you, so now…" then a beam of light came at Yggdrasill interrupting his line. A group of men came charging in dressed in Desian clothing with Botta leading them.

"The Chosen has already become an Angel. We have no choice, we're taking them back with us." He said. The men ran over to the damaged party and carried them through a teleporter. Moments later, they were gone.

"Renegades… annoying as ever. Kratos let us leave and prepare our force to attack that pathetic UNSC." Then Yggdrasill left.

"Saved by the Renegades… don't die Lloyd." Then Kratos left next leaving the room completely empty.

Mean While Somewhere in the Triet Desert…

"Ok men take five." The leader of the UNSC convoy said. Marines, UNSC personnel, and some Covenant then scattered to find shade from the sun.

"That bastered… why do we have to walk through the damn fucking desert when we have drop ships?" a marine asked as he chugged his bottle of water. Lots of marines talked on and on about the desert. Fred didn't join any of the conversation, he just set up a good position to recon the area around the small army.

'God it's hot!' he complained, 'I would give anything for a tanker full of ice cold water.' He looked over to the side and his eyes widened, 'I think I'm hallucinating…' out in the distance, were two beautiful women in tight swimsuits trying to attract his attention, 'man… I wish that was real… I need water.'

"HEY! THEY'RE TAKING THE JEEP!"

"What?" turning around, Fred saw two Desians highjack a warthog. Before the soldiers could begin to open fire, they were way out of sight. 'Great… that warthog was the one that had the tank of water in it… just my fucking day… and where were those bastereds hiding?'

Mean While in Orbit of Sylvarant…

Two UNSC personnel sat in the chow hall on one of the Orbital MAC guns playing virtual chess. "Check…" one of them said.

"Damn! The take this!" the other yelled.

"Um… Checkmate."

"Argh! I hate you Shawn! Hey…… do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"It sounds like it's coming from the air locks." The man got up and went to one of the air locks and opened it. The man was now stunned, dozens of unknown people with wings and weapons stood before the two, "Shawn! Call for help! We have a security breach!"

Hours Later Back Down on Sylvarant…

It's been a while since the group fought against Yggdrasill and his henchmen. Now everybody's ether recovering from his or her wounds, or still knocked out. But the only one awake was Sheena. She was putting together the current events that have happen in the past few hours… and Colette in her lifeless form.

After they were saved from the Tower of Salvation, they were brought to the to the Renegade Base in Triet, but the others don't know. She glanced over at Max's damaged body in the bed next to her thinking, 'How? How can he survive two devastating blow from those tech?' her eyes looked at the blood stained bandages on his shoulder then at the bandages wrapped around his torso for the massive bruise.

She then scavenged through his belonging till she found his Grandfather's pen. Remembering the first time she saw it, which was weeks ago, and she was shocked to find Mizuho writing on it at that time, 'now what's it say' she read the characters on it till it made no sense, 'As long the key stays in a hand of a Carrier, our secrets are safe… I don't understand that.' Continuing her search, she found a book with a lock on it.

'A book?' with an attempt to open it by picking the lock, which was one of her specialties, but the same thing that happened to Max earlier. She jumped a bit after feeling a small jolt of electricity, "Ouch, a Magic seal, never thought I would see one. Better not mess with it." She put the book down without looking at the title. 'And that was found underneath his chest plate armor?'

"Sheena?" the ninja whipped around to find Genis and Raine coming to.

"Genis, Raine, how are you two feeling?"

"I feel fine… What! Where are we?" Genis asked.

"We're in Triet."

"Triet? Wait, are we in the Desian base in Triet?"

"Yeah but this guys aren't Desians, I'll tell you when the others are up."

"Oh! What happened to the others?" Raine looked around the room. She found both Lloyd and Shego unconscious on the beds along with the heavily injured Max, and in the corner of the room was Colette.

"I see that things went bad while we were knocked out."

"You think?" Sheena said.

"Yes, let's stop talking about the situation and treat the other." The professor turned to Genis first, "Genis, make sure Lloyd is fine," she then turned to Sheena, "Sheena look after Max, and I'll check on Shego. In the mean time we'll leave Colette alone."

"Ok sis."

"Alright."

Then the three of them split up to do their separate jobs. Sheena approached Max's bed with a chair to sit in.

For hours they were still looking out for their assigned person, Genis went to sleep after he was done with Lloyd, Raine is still at, and Sheena is exhausted. She was done changing the bandages, but what else was there for her to do next?

'Gosh…' she thought, 'who knew this would be so tiresome.' she gazed around the room to find Genis in bed, and Raine trying to figure out how to take off Shego's head armor to check for any… head injuries. She checked the time on the little clock that was hanging from the wall, '9:30 PM… I guess I'll close my eyes for a little bit.' After closing her eyes, she wasn't going to rest her eyes she actually fell asleep.

'I guess she couldn't last any longer.' Raine thought till her hands found where to take off the Elite's helmet, 'here we go………………… oh……'

Next Morning in front of Triet village…

"I got some bad news marines…" the group leading the convoy said, "at 1437 hours yesterday, we've lost contact with the MAC gun Base, the small base in Luin, and the UNSC fleet orbiting the planet."

The leader then heard a few gasps and some soldiers talking in the back of the crowd. A marine stood raising a hand, "You sure you had full reception on the damn radio Capt.?"

"Of course I did full reception moron." Then there was more talking from soldiers about the situation. Nobody knew what was happening. Two marines came out of nowhere and up to the captain. One of them whispered something into his ear, "What? Are you sure?"

"Come look for yourself." The three UNSC soldiers walked over a dune to find Fred gazing from the scope of his sniper rifle examining the village.

"What do you see son?" the Captain asked.

"I've been doing more recon stuff on the village for about thirty minutes, the place is a complete ghost town."

"You sure of it?"

"Yep, no men, women, children, or animals in sight."

'I don't like this at all.'

Mean While at the Renegade Base…

'Warm…' Sheena thought. Then with a sudden realization, she sprang up in her chair and noticed that she was wrapped in the blanket from Max's bed. Quickly glancing down at the bed in front of her, she saw that it was empty, 'Where did Max go?'

"Good morning Sheena." Sheena whipped around and fell off the chair she was sitting in, 'ouch, must be her way of starting her morning.'

Sheena leapt to her feet, "Oh brother… for the second time Max…"

"What? It's not my fault if I somehow keep mysteriously heal in one night."

"Then I strongly recommend you to get back in this bed and recover like the others are… that's an order."

"Order? You're not my Superior Officer, the only way you're going to get me back in that bed, is by taking me by force." Sheena shot some threat glares at Max but that just didn't work, "nope… I don't feel like I'm in danger what so ever."

"Fine!" the ninja marched over to him and got his head in an arm lock smiling, "I'm going to do this physically."

"Hey! Careful with the head, there's only one of me you know."

"I know, now come on." With great control, she guided Max over to his bed and was ready to throw him on the cot, "ok, here we go."

"Oh no, I ain't going down alone." Max managed to get one of his legs to get in front of Sheena's causing her to trip onto the bed with him. They both fell side-by-side on the bed laughing.

"I just realized something," Sheena began, "every time I'm in a tight spot, you always there to help me. Like how you saved me back at the tower yesterday."

Max stopped laughing immediately and looked at her in confusion, "What?"

"You saved me, don't you remember?"

"I… don't somehow. All I remember before blacking out is getting a beam of light shooting through my shoulder and thrown against a wall of some sort, that's it."

"Well, you were pulverized into a wall for a second time."

"Maybe that's why I can't remember. It might pop up somewhere in my head sometime later." 'Short-term memory lose or brain damage? Guess it doesn't really matter.'

Then something caught Sheena's nose, it smelled like something was burning, "what's that smell?"

Max shot out like a bullet towards the other side of the room yelling, "Oh shit! The bacon and biscuits!"

Back In Front of the Village of Triet…

"Alright, We got two four man teams doing a quick search, twelve snipers set up around the village on stand by, and thirty marines ready for any problems." The Captain said, "So I don't want any screw ups. Move out." With a loud 'Hoo-rah' the soldiers scattered to their positions.

"So Fred," a sniper asked, "when you looked over the area, you didn't see… anybody."

"Yeah man, it was empty like my mom's cookie jar."

"…"

"What?"

"What kind of a fucking comparison is that!"

"I know it was pretty dumb."

"Will you two just shut the hell up!" another sniper said, "They're going in. You think they'll be fine?"

"Oh they'll be ok." Just then an explosion went off near the market area, "that… didn't sound to good."

"No it didn't…"


	18. Shego's Techs page

I got a review asking about Shego's techs. His techs are pretty much Covenant style, he'll learn different ones along the journey. Here is a list of techs if you need to knows…

Hunter's Rage- when he attacks, Shego does the Melee of what a Hunter does, charge in on their enemy and use their shields to bash them, but Shego uses his swords.

Brutes Fist- Shego bash's his opponent with the handle with the energy sword turned off.

Energy Shield- it's like the guardian tech, except he's using one of those shields that the Jackal's use and when it's turned on, it shoots out of one of the forearm armor on Shego.

Grunt's Rush- Shego charges into battle quickly taking out his enemy along the way.

That's all I can tell for now, if I say anymore, I might end up getting assassinated by two or more Spec-op Elite, who knows. Stay tuned for the next chapter of Tales of Halo.


	19. Tales of Halo CH 29

CH. 29

Too Tethe'alla?

Two Renegade guards stood outside of the door where a meeting of two groups, "So…" one of the guard began, "the kid in red and the Chosen's party are doing what with lord Yuan and Botta?"

"I think I heard that Yuan is trying to convince them to join us."

"Let's hope things go smoothly." But it didn't. The door they were guarding exploded sending both of them into the wall in front of them.

"That could have went better…Max!" a voice came from the smoke.

"What? Using a grenade to open a door? Screw it Genis, save your little lecture for when we get out." Coming out of the smoke first was Max and Genis being followed by the rest of the group.

"But that was dangerous! We could have died!" Lloyd said.

"Ooh quit your bitching. We're alive aren't we?"

The door down the hall from them opened and a Renegade came wondering out, "What was that noise?" he said.

Quickly, Raine ran up to him with her staff. With one powerful blow to the head, the Renegade fell unconscious, "that takes care of that. Shall we move on?"

"Yes, in the meantime I'll contact HQ about what we know yesterday on the way." The party nodded and went as fast as the can towards the exit. Max turned on his radio and spoke into it, "Hello MAC gun Base, this is Medical Lieutenant Max Demore. Can anybody read me over?" for seconds he only heard static. The medic repeated himself into the radio again, but he got the same tone of static. 'Funny… I have full reception, but no one seems to be answering my call. Let's try Fred.'

"It's locked!" Genis yelled.

"Huh?" since Max wasn't paying any attention on where they were. Before he could call Fred, he noticed that they're in front of the exit, which Genis said was locked, "you guys want me to blow it open again?"

"No…" they all said.

"Then do any of you know an alternant route?" everyone shuck their heads no to him, "Sigh… well… I guess we should…" before he could finish, a small ball of Mana flew past him hitting the wall. Quickly everybody wield their weapons, But Max did it two times faster than them. He ignited his sword, turned around striking a robot that floating in the air. The bot fell to the ground in two shooting out sparks, "robots? What the hell this just keeps getting weird.'"

"Here comes more!" Lloyd said.

Ten more flew out of the perfectly square shape hole in the wall. In a matter of minutes, they were completely surrounded. Shego looked closely at the machines till it reminded him of something from Halo, "this things almost look like Sentinels, the Warriors of the Holy Ring."

"They could be similar. Hell, I don't care. Let's finish this and get a move on." In on second Max cast Fireball Burst only taking out half of them. Lloyd then did a Tempest taking out another. But then more just came pouring through the hole in the wall.

"It's no good, we're out numbered!" Genis yelled.

Max didn't need to **worry**, he had a strange plan that only the Marines would laugh at. He stepped forward placing what seems to be a grenade in one of the pouches on his Chest plate. He then pulled out the pin. Everyone in the group saw him do this and dropped their jaws, "I am the Great Houdini!"

"Max… did you…" before Raine could finish, piles of smoke quick came out covering the entire party making it difficult for the robots to get a lock.

"Go!" Max grabbed each of the members shoulders one at a time and tossed/pushed them out of the smoke to the open door that led to room they were in before. The smoke was about to clear and the only two left were Max and Colette. The medic got behind the chosen saying, "Sorry if you get a bruise Colette but I'm afraid that I have to…"

Mean while in the other room, Lloyd and Raine were waiting for the next member to come in while Sheena, Shego, and Genis were observing the huge… Gamecube that was underneath a circular glass floor in the center of the room, "What's taking Max so long with Colette?"

Suddenly, Max came flying out of the smoke and landed where the ninja, Elite, and the young elf were examining, "Ow! Damn, what the hell?"

"Hey are you ok? Where's Colette?" the medic laid completely still only using his hand to point to who through him. Colette came walking out all calm and stared into space again, "She threw you?" Genis asked.

"Yeah… I was about to throw her, but she somehow countered it and threw me." Max pushed himself off the floor and stretched his arms, "we should continue on. It won't be long before the smoke clears up."

After running through the door on the east side of the room, Max turned on his radio to call Fred and this time he picked up, "Hello this is Lieutenant Fred Foster, part of the UNSC. I don't stop till every bad guy is dead" then there were four shots coming from a sniper rifle.

"Fred! What the hell are you doing? And why isn't the MAC gun Base answering my call?"

"Sorry, please ask the right question."

"Fred! Don't screw around with me! I'm serious!"

"Sorry, right now I'm in Triet trying to stay alive here with five other marines while inside a building getting attack. We've sent out an SOS to any Pelican drop ships, but only a few responded so we're going to be fine." Fred said as he switched positions to another window, "and the reason you can't get a responds from HQ is because our radios are being blocked in this area or HQ might be having another system failure **or** they're under attack also."

"Great…"

"And that's not all, we can't even call the fleet and the small base in Luin too." There were another four gunshots.

"Do need any assistance?"

"Nope, the drop ships just arrived. We're heading out n..."

Before he could finish, a marine's cried out in the background, "THAT GUY HAS A ROCKET LAUNCHER! GET DOWN!" suddenly there was a loud explosion, then static.

"Fred… Fred! What happen?" there was no responds, 'Damn! What the hell's going on?'

"Max what's the matter?" Max turned to Genis.

"I called Fred, I think we have a situation, a bad one too." Then group continued their progress till Lloyd stopped to speak to himself.

"Damn it, what's so important about me?"

The entire group turned to him, "we're not sure human, and too me it must have to do with that holy jewel on the back of your hand." Said Shego.

"Sorry to change the subject guys, but what are we going to do about Colette?"

"That's right, I promised to change her back to her normal self!"

"But the question is… how do we do that?" everyone took the time to think, "and I'm wondering what were all of those bodies back at the tower."

Raine thought someone might ask that question, and she had an answer, "Maybe those bodies were all the chosen's that failed up until now."

"If the ritual been repeated that many times, then why hasn't the journey been completed yet?"

"Who knows, hey Sheena," Max turned to Sheena, "where did you get your Exsphare?"

"Huh? Oh it came out of nowhere. I got it at the Research Academy in Tethe'alla before I even came here, and the Academy is also where Corrine was born."

'Born?' "Is it standard to have people use them in Tethe'alla?"

"Not at all! The Renegades brought over the technology and the information about the two worlds. They even convinced the King and the Pope about killing Sylvarant's chosen."

"Are they studying Cruxis Crystals?" Raine said

"Yeah, why?"

"Lloyd, Max, I think we should go to Tethe'alla."

"Why?" Shego asked.

"If they're studying Cruxis Crystals, then might know how to cure Colette."

"But how do we get there?"

"We can use this things called Rheairds, the Renegades should have them here."

'Wonderful,' Max thought, 'another dimension to go to.' The medic looked around and saw a door with a sign above it saying "Hanger", "Want to try that door?" Sheena, Lloyd and the others nodded. When they walked into the room, Shego spotted a machine to his left, a computer to the right, and in front of him seems to be a big launching area and a long corridor that's like a barrel of a gun.

Raine and Max went up to the computer several random buttons till a hole opened up in front of them, then a lift was activated that brought up the Rheairds one at a time, "Alright onto the Rheairds, now. Before they catch us, you first Genis."

"Alright." After Genis jumped on one, he was off. Then Raine, Colette, Sheena, Lloyd, and Shego. When Max's Rheaird came up, it looked two times as tall as the others though.

'What the hell?' Glancing on what's below it, it was a Warthog without a turret attachment tide to the Rheaird (The Warthog that was captured), "what in the world? This thing can't fly with that thing attached to it."

Suddenly the door behind him opened revealing six Renegades all armed with crossbows, "Give it up!" one of them said.

'I guess I got to take the risk!' Quickly, Max jumped onto the Rheiard and turned it on. Seconds later it started to hover, then…

"Jesus Christ!" Max's Rheiard was now in motion as it speed quickly through the corridor and out of the base. Looking up, he saw a big black hole in the sky that could engulf an entire UNSC Battle ship. Then his Rheiard automatically turned to the hole and flew into it.

Mean While in Tethe'alla…

The Chosen's Group waited near their Rheiards for Max to come to them. They were on the top of a mountain gazing out in the distance at Tethe'alla's Tower of Salvation. Suddenly a boom sound entered Sheena's ear. She spun around to find Max's Rheiard doing a series of barrel rolls, but he missed crashing into the mountain where the group was and landed in the forest below them.

"That looked like it hurt more than crashing up here." Lloyd said, "Shouldn't we go see if he's ok?"

"I believe we should comrade." Shego was the first to start walking.

"Ok! It's our first trip in Tethe'alla! Lets go!"

Meanwhile down the mountain…

"…………Ooww…… Pain…" Max complained as he hung upside down with one of his legs stuck between two branches of a tree. Looking towards the ground, he saw his Rheiard flipped over, visor hanging from a lower branch right above the Warthog that managed to land perfectly on four of its wheels without any damage, "still… I'm not a pilot… to be fly those thing, but I do want to try launching it again… that was so fucking awesome!"

Then the bushes near him rustled a bit before four people walked out in strange clothes. One seems to be an archer because he's carrying a bow, two others were swordsmen, and the last was a woman in a witch's outfit. The group approached the vehicles not noticing the medic hanging from one of the trees.

"What was that? Wow! Look at this." One of the swordsmen says.

"What are these?" The archer asked.

"Maybe it's one of those machines that failed from the research center from Syback." The witch/sorceress said.

"Why don't we sell these things? We could make lots of Gald."

Finally, Max decided now would be a good time to call down to them and ask for assistance, "Hey! Hello! Up here!" the group looked up towards him quite surprised to find him stuck in a tree.

"Oh! We didn't see you up there! Need some help?"

"That would be gr…"

"On second thought, why don't we leave you there and take these two big metal objects so that way we can get big money."

"Wha?" 'Basterds! I can't let them take the vehicles. Better try settling this in a peaceful manner. But I should teach them a lesson or two why they shouldn't steal things from a medic.' "Don't make me come down there!"

"How?"

'That's it…' Max reached for his Energy Sword and turned it on. Carefully, he cut one of the braches making sure he didn't cut off his leg. With his leg finally free, he fell to the ground back first. After he quickly recovered from the painful fall (or FALLS) he then made his way to his feet and a battle stance.

"You wanna fight do ya? Four against one sounds fare enough." The two swordsmans charged in with their blades at the ready while the archer and the witch were preparing for their attack, "you're dead!" the swordsman came in with a vertical chop with his mighty sharp sword.

After the chop, there was a moment of silence. The tip of the sword was on the ground, but there seems to be no blood on it. Max glared down at the blade and noticed something, "What the fuck? You missed by an inch." 'Guess there's no need to kill any of them.'

Meanwhile…

The Chosen's group made it down the mountain in a short amount of time. Lloyd hunched over exhausted, "Man, I never expected that the climb down was tough." he said as he looked over at Shego, "and Shego got down here faster than us somehow."

"You should be glad that you didn't fall down the rest of the way like Sheena did." Sheena then knit her brow at Genis after hearing that, "Oh, um… I was just kidding."

"Whatever…"

"Max must have landed over there somewhere." Shego said as he pointed his weapon towards a certain part of the forest nearby that showed some smoke rising to the sky. Everyone agreed and entered. When they were further into the green, they past a bush and were surprised to find four knocked out people tied to a tree.

"Hey guys! What took you all so long?" Shego, Sheena, and Lloyd looked to their right to find Max digging around the back end of the Warthog for supplies.

"Max, what happened here?" Sheena asked as she approached he.

"Those Jackass's were trying to steal the vehicles, but I taught em a lesson or two, then I tied their sorry ass's to that tree… ah, here's something I'm looking for." Max then pulled long gun that was hiding underneath the passenger seat. Sheena watched him grasp apart of the gun and pulled it back, she heard a loud click sound coming from it. A red object the size of her finger flew out, then she quickly caught it before it could even hit the ground, "it still works."

"What's that?"

"A 12-gauge, pumped-action shotgun. It can hold up to twelve rounds, fires one round per seconds, good for close combat situations and good for fighting heavily armored soldiers."

"…"

"You did not understand a word I just said did you?" max put a hand over his face as he retrieved his visor, "never mind, we should get moving."

"What about them?" Raine asked as she pointed to the four people tied to the tree.

"They'll be fine. I put their weapons an inch away from their feet. The moment they wake up they'll have to get out them selves."

Everyone piled into the Warthog, with Max in the driver's seat, Shego in the passenger seat, and the rest of the group in the back.

Max started the engine and drove off. After a few minutes of driving around in the forest, Lloyd was curious about something, "By the way, where are we going?"

Immediately, the medic stopped the Hog and did nothing, "Sheena?"

"Sorry, I forgot…" Sheena then realized that she was the only one from Tethe'alla, "We should head to Meltokio since it's closer. If we go north, we could get there before this afternoon."

"North huh? Well then, north it is."

Meanwhile, back in Sylvarant…

"Aaww Daaammn… My head…" Fred leaned up to find a crashed Pelican, Several dead marines around him, "What happened?" suddenly, the images of his situation flashed before his eyes, 'that's right…' quickly he picked up his gun and glanced around the area of Triet. Empty…

"Fuck… am I the only one here?" the marine ran over to the corner of the inn right next to the wanted picture of Lloyd. He then check his ammunition, 'two full clips and three extra. And full amount of ammo for the magnum.'

There was a sudden war cry behind him, quickly turning around as he brought his Sniper rifle up and placed two bullets in a Desian's chest. "That was…" before he could finish, something quickly slammed into him from behind. Then pain started to spread from his hip. Gazing down, there was a silver object sticking out of him. He slowly he turned his head. Standing behind him was another Desian, but this one held a knife and was grinning too. His vision began to blur.

"Crap…" with no other option left for him he brought his weapon up and aimed it at his chest, 'since I might die from a wound like that anyway, better make the most of it and go out with a bang…' he pull the trigger twice and silence filled the area.

Meanwhile aboard MAC gun 43…

"I want those three computers fixed ASAP! Where are those medics? We got a lot of wounded here!" the Admiral commanded. The bridge was a wreck after the attack of unknown people.

"The medics are on their way sir! And I was told that the communication satellite were fixed now"

"Good" he then pressed a button on a control panel and spoke into it, "To any UNSC and UNSCDF forces, please state your status."

"This is Captain Benard of the Le Montreal, we've sustained minimal damage, but many casualties."

"That's it? One ship sir?" a soldier said as he heard the conversation.

"Yes, now get back to work on fixing those lights private."

"Yes sir."

'My god, what caused this sudden attack?'


	20. Tales of Halo CH 30

CH. 30

The Newcomers

"Slowdown Matz!" Shego yelled as Max drove over the speed limit and off a small jump, but there was no speed limit.

"I have to agree with Shego Max, turn the speed down a notch before you get us all killed." Suddenly the Hog came to a stop sending Shego and Raine fly out from their seats and into the grass together.

"You know what," Max began as he gave them a strange glare and leaned on the steering wheel, "For missions liked these, to heal a person the lost her humanity and became an Angel and stopping some kind of crazy guy that's willing to sacrifice Tethe'alla and the Chosen to bring back a goddess that I haven't even heard of. It calls for…"

"Calls for what?" Sheena asked.

"Damn it all… forget what I was saying and get back in the damn jeep." The two that fell overboard hopped back one the warthog and this time, Raine and Shego held on tight to something so that the next time Max stops they won't go flying again.

An hour or so later, Meltokio came into view. It's big walls seemed taller then normal medieval castles, but this one was big. "Is this the place?"

"Yeah, this is it." Sheena answered, and then she looked at Shego and thought for the moment, "Hey Max, stop for a second."

Max did so and stopped the Warthog just as Sheena asked, "What is it?"

"It's about Shego." Everyone including Shego started to listen what Sheena might have to say, "Since we're here in Tethe'alla, the people here might feel uncomfortable seeing him around, because he's an Elite and the they think he might be some kind of monster."

"I see…" Max took off his helmet while he could come up with a solution. A second later he had an answer, "hey Lloyd, look underneath my seat for a dark Green cloak."

"Gotcha." The swordsman did so and found what he was looking for, "is this it?" Lloyd held up a green cloak that was folded and wrapped in plastic bag.

"That's it." The medic took it so he could see if it's the right size, it was. He then unwrapped it and handed it to the alien, "Here, put this on." Shego tried it on, the cloak was so big that it went all the way down to his feet and there was a hood to hide his face, "How does it fell?"

"Nothing human."

"Alright problem solved, can we proceed?"

"Yeah, I guess the guards won't fined him to suspicious."

"Let's continue then, and Sheena what's the Chosen in Tethe'alla like?"

Sheena was shocked and did not want to talk about the chosen in Tethe'alla, "Um… how would I explain him… he's a… pervert."

Lloyd heard this and was surprised, "What? What makes him a pervert?"

"Eh… let's not talk about it, ah we're here." Sheena noticed Max approaching the entrance, but he parked the vehicle only yards away from the gate and the guards.

"Ok pile out." Max reached in back of his seat and took out the Shotgun, "Hey Shego," Shego turned to him before he got out of the vehicle, "do you know how to use a shotgun?"

"Yes, me and my brothers used some human weapons back on the holy ring."

"Alright, here. Keep under your cloak, I'll tell you when's the best time to take it out and use it." He then handed the weapon to the Elite.

"Understood." Shego did what Max told to do and hid the shotgun underneath his cloak. To Max's ears, there was a small clack sound from the alien.

"What was that?"

"I attached the weapon to my armor so that way I can be able to use my arms without hold it."

"I didn't know your armor could do that… wait, where did the others go?" the two looked around to find the rest of the group already at the gate. Then Sheena left the group and started to walk towards them… she seemed to be embarrassed about something.

"Max, Shego, I want you two also know that I'm going back to Mizuho to inform the chief about my mission."

"You're from a village that has a chief? And why do you need to inform him?"

"I was sent to kill Colette remember? So I have to tell him about my failure."

"Do you want any one of us to come with you?"

"No thanks, I can do it on my own, but you guys have to go see the king of Tethe'alla and give him a message. I gave the letter to Lloyd."

"Alright, you take care of yourself Sheena… but where should we meet you if something happened?"

"Maybe Syback, and I don't think this will be the last time we meet each other."

"So we shouldn't say good-byes yet then."

"That's what Raine just said awhile ago, are you two hiding secret from us?" Sheena said sarcastically.

"What? Nah… if I wanted to go out with someone, it might be you…" after what he just said, Max and Sheena then stared at each other in awkward silence, 'did I just say what I think said? Oh fuck…'

'Did he just…' the two continued to stare and blush a bit till Shego interrupted.

"Matz we must meet with the chosen."

"Um, yeah, we'll see you around take care."

"You too." Sheena then walked of towards the north past the parked warthog. Max and Shego made their way to the group.

"Hey Max?" Genis began, "are you sure you want to leave that thing of yours out here unsupervised?" he then pointed at the warthog, "what if some one comes along and steals it?"

Max then held up a set of keys, "Not without these."

"What? Keys?"

"Yeah, we use key for vehicles like the warthog back home. Shall we?" the group nodded and entered the city. They then went up a flight a stairs to the second layer. Max and Shego did noticed that some of the citizens were glaring at them for a few seconds and looked away before the medic and cloaked Elite could look back. And also they didn't pay much attention to her kicking a dog and a strange man in a green outfit.

They then stopped in the middle of what seems to be a plaza, the group then gazed around not noticing that Colette walked past the group then walked into a crowd of girls following this one guy and bumped into one of them.

"Heeeey! Watch it!" The one that the chosen bumped into yelled.

"Watch where you're going!" another yelled.

"Now…now everyone," they guy said calming down the angry mob of women, "Now, are hurt there sweetie?" The man turned around revealing his face, he had long red hair, and wore some kind of pink, noble-mans outfit or something.

Colette didn't say anything, all she did was stare into space like as if nothing happened, "look how she acts!" a woman said, "it's not even festival time and she's already dressed up as an angel!"

"What did you say?" Genis barked.

"Genis, calm down. It's quite obvious that she never looked in a mirror."

"What did you say!" the same woman yelled twice as loud. Suddenly the man put his hand on Colette's should. The chosen acted fast by grabbing the man's hand and tossed him to the side, "Aah! Master Zelos!" the man then landed on the ground not on his back, but on his feet.

"Whoa! You caught me off guard there." He then walked back and stood near the chosen's group.

"Who the fuck are you?" Max asked.

"I'm sorry, I don't really like talking to guys." He marches up to Raine after Genis whispered.

"I'm starting hate this guy already."

"Ooh, what's your name gorgeous?"

"Give me your name, and I will give you mine." Lloyd and Genis looked at the professor after what she just said.

"Hey! You just copied Lloyd!"

"Now that I heard some one else say it, it sounds kind of arrogant."

"Oh, so you don't know me? I think I still have long ways to go then." Then the herd of women started to move towards the castle.

"Master Zelos! Come on!" A blond woman shouted for him.

"Ok ok, I'll see you later my gorgeous beauty, and my cut little angel," the man then turned toward the guys of the group and said, "and you… other people." And then walks of to the castle after his hunnies.

Second of silence fell over the group, then Genis broke it after realizing about that one guy, "What an ass! He was grinning like an idiot the entire time."

"Matz," Shego began, "do all humans act that way?"

"Not all man…"

Minutes later they stood at the entrance to the castle, but were stopped by two heavily armored guards. Even though they didn't let them in do to the king's sickness. They then went to the church that was right next door.

They entered and approached the Priest, "Um… excuse us." Max began but he was cut off from the priest's talk about the goddess Martel that is now a lie that the Chosen's group figured out.

"Ah, Presea," the priest then focused on a person behind the group. Genis, Lloyd, Max and everyone else turned around to find a little girl about Genis' age and height, with pink hair, and was dragging a huge piece of a log, "Presea, please take the sacred wood to the castle for the prayers for the kings recovery."

"Yes…" the girl said with a calm voice, and dragged the log out of the entrance.

"She's cute…" Genis thought out loud.

"He said that her name's Presea right?" Lloyd spoke.

"Yeah… really cute…" Max and Lloyd looked over at Genis not believing that he's only focusing on one thing.

"Genis, do you know what your what I'm trying to say?"

"Can't you see Lloyd?" Max said as he put a hand on Genis' hair, "our young magical friend here has a crush, isn't that right Genis?" after hearing that made Genis blush a tiny bit, "And you know what Genis, I have an idea. Why don't we go help her."

"Y-yeah! I think that's great idea! I agree!"

"Alright, plans settled. Let's move."

Meanwhile in Sylvarant…

"Admiral sir, I've received the status reports on the MAC gun base and the operation to Triet." An officer said.

"Show me"

The officer pushed a buttons on a control panel. Then numbers of people that are alive now and that are in KIA popped up on the monitor reading, "MAC base results, 536 KIA, 57 alive… Triet results, 47 KIA, 3 wounded."

"And what about the fleet?"

"15 frigates, 6 battleships, and 5 Orbital MAC guns were destroyed and/or self destructed so right now it's only us, and the frigate Le Montreal, and the total amount of survivors are 289."

"And how did those bastereds board our ships."

"No idea sir."

Back in Tethe'alla…

"Finally, we're in side." Max announced after him, Shego, Lloyd, and Genis carried in the sacred wood. Earlier Lloyd and Genis tried to carry the log themselves, but it was too heavy. The medic and the Elite then offered assistance, luckily, they did manage to lift it and bring it in, "what do we do now?"

"Leave it here…" Presea answered.

"Then we should find the king, but letting Presea go might be suspicious, I think we should have her be with us for a while, what do you think?" Raine said.

"What makes you think it's suspicious?"

"If we let her go, she might tell some one about our infiltration."

"I see your point, let's go."

Da Da Daaaaaa! Presea has joined the party!

The group moved to the second floor to find a guard standing in front of a door, that was the king's bedroom.

"Come on guys," Max and the other made their way to the guard.

"Halt! Who are you people?" the Guard asked when the group was spotted.

"We're here to give our prayers to the king. They were orders from the Pope" Raine responded before Max.

"The Pope? Please wait here…" the Guard then turned around and opened the door to the room. Almost knowing something might go wrong, Max and Lloyd came up to the knight and elbowed him in the back at the same time making him past out.

"My bad…" Max said. In the room were six people.

"What's the meaning of this?" One of the civilians who was the Pope demanded.

Then another civilian with long red head turned around surprised to find the same group of people he met earlier, "It's you people again!"

"Wait… aren't you that pimp guy who had all those strange dressed women following before?" Max asked.

"Max," Genis began, "What's a pimp?"

"Tell you when you're older."

"Chosen! Do you know these people?"

"Chosen?" Everyone from the Chosen's group from Sylvarant said at the same time.

Meanwhile in Sylvarant…

"Welcome to the bridge General." The Admiral saluted to Hoth as he entered the Bridge.

"Pleasant to be aboard, at ease." Then the entrance at the other end of the room opened to reveal the captain of the Le Montreal.

"Ah, Captain Stephan Benard, please take seat." The Captain did so and took a seat at a nearby table, "Now Gentlemen, I would like to announce that we have a bigger situation. We have low manpower, 87 of our weapons from the armory down on the surface were taken, the schedule for the 100rCN is pushed back to far, and the location of Medical Lieutenant Max Demore and the Chosen's group is unknown."

"Do we have a solution?"

"I have two options that we might be able to do at the same time."

"Go on."

"I was thinking maybe we should try to continue with the 100rCN project while creating another, and newer A.I."

"Another A.I.? That would mainly take weeks or maybe months to create one like the A.I. Cortana."

"That's why I was thinking of having the New Covenant help us with bomb while we work on the A.I."

"What do you think General?"

Hoth began to think, but Captain Benard did have a good point, "I guess we have no other choice, we'll start creating the A.I. no matter how long it takes, we might die from another attack by the Desians anyway, but our goal now is to survive as long as we can."

"Speaking of the word 'survive' General, how did you survive from the attack at the MAC Base?"

"Me and some of the other survivors held our position on the bridge."

"Very strategic sir."

"I know, let's cut the chit chat and begin shall we."

Back in Tethe'alla…

"They sure are making us wait a long time." Lloyd said as he sat in the chair.

"Since we just came from Sylvarant, maybe they're finding some way either to help Colette or maybe kill her."

"But what about Presea? We can't drag her into this." Everyone then looked at Presea.

"Yeah, we have to find some way for to escape." Presea did respond to any part of the conversation behind, all she was doing was star at the wall in front of her. She was even almost acting like Colette.

Then to door opened, the Pope, Zelos the Chosen of Tethe'alla, and two Papal Knights came walking in, "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"Oh do worry about me," Max began, "I'm used to waiting in locked rooms while people talk about how they're going to deal with us." Raine then approached Max and hit him hard in the head, "OW! Raine!"

"Please excuse him, so what's your answer?"

"Yes our responds is that we might help you travelers from Sylvarant, but since the Chosen is in the final stages of becoming the angel that might put our world in danger, so we have to take drastic measures." The Knights began to surround Colette with their blades at the ready.

"Damn! I thought something like this would happen!" Max said as he quickly to out his energy sword, but not turning it on.

"I'm sorry mister "ugly man in black" but it's either her, or our world getting destroyed." Zelos then said.

"How do you know that I'm even ugly if you can't even see my face you perverted prick."

While Max and Zelos were Quarreling, the knight began to attack Colette, but before the blades could even touch her, she quickly and powerfully pushed them back, "What? The knights didn't even lay a scratch on her."

"Do you see what she is now," Raine said, "If she stays as she is now, she might be able to complete the ritual. But our goal is turn her back into her normal, if we do, then both worlds will be safe."

"But if you come here to save her and this world, then that means you'll be putting Sylvarant in danger."

"I don't care…"

Lloyd, Genis, and Max looked at the Professor after hearing what she just said, "Professor…"

"I'm sorry Lloyd, but we have so little choices."

"I… guess… sigh, you're right."

"I see the professor's point there." Max said, "but sorry Genis, I may not be from Sylvarant, and I'm not the group leader while we're here in the Tethe'alla so… ah fuck it, I'm just going with the flow in my own way.

"Wait… you're not from Sylvarant? Then you're from here then." Zelos said.

'No, I'm not from Tethe'alla or Sylvarant, but hell, might as well not say anything about earth here.'

"Fine," the Pope began, "I'll give you permission to go freely around Tethe'alla."

"Hey Pope, mind if I come along with them. Ya know? Baby sit?"

"If that's what you want Chosen."

"Alright, Lloyd right?" Zelos then turned to Lloyd, "How about we meet up at the Martel Cathedral in a few hours, how does that sound?"

"Ok then."

Meanwhile in the Mystical Village of Mizuho…

"Vice-Chief, Sheena has returned from her mission." A person in a ninja outfit informed as he entered the room with a bow.

"She may enter."

A few seconds later the door slid open, Sheena and Corrine stepped in, "Hello Vice-Chief."

"Please have a seat Sheena and tell me how the Mission went."

"Well Vice-Chief, the mission didn't go exactly as planned."

"What happen?"

"I arrived in Sylvarant as planned, but when I had this one chance to kill her, this man in strange clothes interfered, his name was Max Demore, he's from this army we were never informed about."

"What's the name of this army?"

"It's called the United Nation's Space Corps, UNSC for short."

"What's the purpose of this army?"

"To keep peace I think. Before you ask more questions, I just want to let you know that I don't know exactly everything about it."

"Sorry Sheena, I was moving off topic, please tell me the rest what happen in Sylvarant."

For minutes, Sheena informed Tiga from when she first arrived in Sylvarant, up until now. When she was finished, Sheena was then given new order, to observe the chosen's group.


	21. Tales of Halo CH 31

CH. 31

Secret Blown

"Are we there yet?" Zelos asked as he leaned back in his seat placing his feet up on the dashboard.

Max turned his head to his right, "No Zelos, we just left ten minutes ago, and why are you sitting in the passenger seat?"

"Because I'm curious how you use this 'Warthog'. In fact, why is it called that? It should be called, 'the great, four wheeler, monster machine'."

"Did you invent this?"

"No."

"Then you can't call it that."

"Why not? I'm the great…"

"Chosen or not, you're not renaming the thing. Besides, your suggestion is not to catchy."

"Then is Zelos' suggestion isn't good enough, what about 'The Metallic Speedy'?" Lloyd asked.

"No."

"What about 'Tough Ogre'?"

"No."

"Wood Worm? Mantis?"

"No! No! NO! Shut up before I actually crash this thing into something! So let me focus!" After Max's roar, everyone that spoke on the subject went silent leaving Shego somehow frightened of his human comrade.

As the ride went on, Raine and Lloyd then noticed Zelos was dazing off into the distance thinking about something, "Zelos, what are you thinking about?"

"My hunnie Sheena, I haven't seen that gorgeous body in a while now." Zelos then sat in a different position, no one knew what exactly he was thinking. Without warning the warthog came to a halt making the perverted chosen hit his head on the dashboard.

"We're here, and Zelos," Zelos looked up at Max rubbing the big bump on his forehead, "there's no fantasizing in the vehicle at all times or else I'll tie you to the tow cable and drag you a good 500 miles as an actual punishment."

"Is that really true?" Genis asked.

"Hell ya it is, cause this one guy in training was fantasizing to much in the jeep. After the 500 mile punishment he was this close to death."

"No it can't… me, the chosen of Tethe'alla will survive through anything. From Bug bites to… whatever kind of punishment you mentioned, will never harm me."

"If you ever have a costume party, I should recommend you wear the 'Road Kill' outfit."

Max then took a look around the warthog noticing everyone getting out before them, "Come on, can't keep the others waiting." Max leapt from the vehicle and turn to Zelos and watched him push random buttons right near the radar between the driver and passenger seat, "don't touch those please…" and

A few seconds later he then asks, "What does this do?"

"No! Don't…" it was to late, the button was pressed, and Max dove away from the Hog. Covering his head and lying on his stomach for at least a minute waiting for something, but it never came. 'what if…' Max looked back at the vehicle and sprung to his feet yelling, "Zelos you ass hole! That was the self destruct button! You're lucky that you didn't catch you ass on fire or else I would toss you off the fucking bridge that's as big as the Golden Gate Bride right there!"

"I did know, but I'm glad that I'm still alive to have more hunnies." Just then, Max removed his helmet and tossed it at Zelos making him fly out of the warthog.

"Max what did you do?" Raine asked as she walked up to Zelos who was still on the ground with his eyes swirling out of control, "he's lucky that you didn't cause a serious blow the head or else he might have been out for hours."

"Oh don't worry about it Raine." Max took out his canteen and poured water on to Zelos making him conscious.

"What… what happened?"

"On your feet, now Zelos."

"Fine, touchy touchy." After the group reunited, Zelos then began his speech, "well my hunnies, this is the great Tethe'alla bridge, the largest bridge in all of Tethe'alla. It can work by using over 3000 Exsphares."

Everyone stared at him with sad faces, "Oh my god." Max said first.

"3000…"

"3000 human lives."

Zelos then snapped his head at the in confusion, "What? Why are you all looking so gloomy?"

"There's something you should know…"

Minutes later after informing Zelos about what the group from Sylvarant encountered at the Asgard ranch, humans turned into stones, "Is all of this true?" the chosen of Tethe'alla asked.

"You think we're making this up?"

"No, what I think what you're saying is true. But it's not like the stones are going to come back from the dead right?" Max, Lloyd, and Genis stared at him on how he acts. Max was the one more pissed about it. Again he took off his helmet at tossed at Zelos' head again, but harder.

"Why did you do that for?" Genis asked.

"Making fun of the dead is not funny, ok? Now help me carry him back to the vehicle." Everybody looked at him and walked back to the vehicle leaving Max, Zelos, and Shego. The medic and the elite stared at each other for a few seconds, "you don't have to listen to me you know, I'm not your superior commander."

"I under stand." Shego walked off to join the others.

Max stood looking down at the unconscious Zelos, 'goddamn…' Max then grabbed Zelos' legs and started to drag him back to the vehicle speaking to himself, "right now… here I am… dragging your perverted ass… at least twenty yards… back to the frickn' vehicle… and I was supposed to be at a BBQ with some friends that I know from training… but noooo… the Covenant just had to come to earth on that very day… so now I'm stuck in this world for a month now…" then his Mana Carrier instincts kicked in picking up a smell, "… And what the hell's that smell! You sick bastard! You just had to go ahead and let one rip!"

Meanwhile…

"Sheena, do you know where we're going." Corrine asks walking beside Sheena.

"We're heading to Syback for some supplies that Mizuho doesn't have."

"Do you still remember the new orders that Tiga's gave to you?"

"Observe the Chosen's group and…"

"I'll take that as a yes, do you think Max, Lloyd and the others are ok on their own?"

"I hope so, or else they might accidentally get sent to the prison down in the arena."

"What about Shego's identity?"

"Let's hope his head isn't placed on a pike." Finally the two managed to exit Gaoracchia forest. Off in the distance was Syback, "If we keep going we could get there before dinner."

Meanwhile…

"Hey Max," Genis began as he sat in the back next to Presea, lightly blushing, "earlier you said making fun of the dead wasn't funny. What did you mean by that? Did someone you know die?" Max kept quite and focused on his drive across the bridge, "Hey, did you hear me?"

"Yeah I heard ya."

"Then can't you answer my question?"

"Sure… I'll answer it." Everyone except for Presea, Colette, and the 'knocked out' Zelos perked their ears towards Max's story, "about eight years ago, when I was thirteen. My dad was part of the UNSC. The ship he was on was called the "Fatal Chance", it was a battle ship that destroyed only two covenant ships they encountered. The third one, was a tough one, they sent a boarding party and destroy the ship from the inside."

"Your dad was part of the UNSC?"

"Yes, let me finish. Him and some marines were holding off the enemy in the fuel bay. I heard it was one hell of a nasty fight. That's all I can say for now…"

"Why can't you say more?"

"Maybe some other time." After driving the warthog down a small flight of steps, they were completely off the bridge. Reaching down underneath his seat, Max found a pair of binoculars. Gazing through them out into the distance was Syback. Zooming in, he noticed that the town looked like a university. And a sign saying 'Syback', "Guess that's it. Hold on tight, we'll be there in less three minutes and twenty seconds flat."

"Oh no." Lloyd spoke right before Max hit the gas.

Back in Sylvarant…

In the infirmary on the last MAC gun, where dozens upon dozens of Soldiers, UNSC personnel, and New Covenant units having their wounds treated, but for many others, they were placed in body bags. On one side of the room, a person stood looked out the window gazing deep into space. Then a female officer then came up to him with a tray of food, "So how are you feeling Fred?" she spoke in somewhat of an Asian accent.

"Just fine Haiyamaru …" Fred turned around examining the tray in his friend's hands and noticed it was enough for two.

"Do you want to sit down somewhere and eat?"

"Sure, why not." Fred and his friend walked towards a bench the was in a room with small trees (Know what I'm talking about? The first main level of Halo 2).

"So Fred, how are your wounds holding up today?" Haiyamaru asked as she took what seems to be a cheeseburger from the tray.

"I'll be up on my feet in a few days. And I was told never, ever do a suicidal finishing moves the next time a guy comes up and stabs you from the rear." Fred then picked up a plastic bowl filled with salad, and he tried to sneak a few fries, but had his hand poked really heard by his friend's spork, "Ow."

"Be careful on what you steal, or you'll whined up in bed again, but longer." The officer then took a bite from her food, "before I forget, have you seen your friend Max around lately?"

"Nope, in fact, I haven't seen him for almost two days now. The report for the casualties yesterday didn't show that he was KIA, and survivor list. He ended up as MIA. He's ether still being attacked by Desians down on the surface, or he's just walking around with the 'Chosen's' group aimlessly not knowing of the attack."

"Oh, well I'm supposed to give this to him." Haiyamaru then took out a yellow envelope, "It's from the General."

"From the general? What's it say?"

"I don't know, it's top secret."

"Since when did Max receive Top Secret missions?"

"Don't know." The officer put the letter in her pocket, and it was the right moment for Fred to snatch a few fries. Halfway back, Fred was then pushed off the bench making him land flat on the ground.

"First the spork and now this… what else could possibly happen." Just then, Haiyamaru dropped a different envelope from her pocket. It landed on the ground lightly, Fred then got a better look at and noticed a sticker the shape of a heart keeping it closed. Without asking, he opened it and began to read it out loud, "Dear Max… Ya de ya de ya da………………… Wait a minute…… this a-"

"Give that back!"

Back in Tethe'alla…

The group finally arrived in Syback, everything seemed to going ok, but for Presea, she was uncomfortable being there. The group told her that it won't take long and she'll be back in Ozette soon. Now they were standing in front of the inn talking about their schedule.

"So what's the plan today hunnies?"

"We're about to go over that and will you please stop calling us all hunnies"

"Will you two pay attention." Raine said making Max and Zelos shut up, "Thank you, Max I want you and Shego to make a reservation for us at the inn, get us eight beds."

"Eight beds got it."

"While you do that, the rest of us will follow Zelos to the research facility to try and cure Colette. Meet us there in one hour."

"Alright, come on Shego and keep your cloak on." Max and Shego walked into the inn. It was quite, in fact, it was empty. On the table in front of them was a small sign that says, 'out for a meal, be back later.'

The two stood there for seconds staring at the note in front of them, "Should we come back in a few minutes Matz?"

"No, we're going to wait the guy, besides, he can't be gone to long."

Fifty-Five minutes later…

Max and Shego sat on a bench waiting… waiting… and waiting, "Oh my god… what the hell… what's taking that guy so long?"

"Using the facilities?"

"No, but you know what? Screw this, I'm going to go look for our friends, do you mind filling out for me when the guy gets back, and remember, keep your cloak on."

"I will."

"Good, I'll be back with the others and maybe a cured Colette." After Max left the building, he wondered around looking for the research facility. As he was walking down the street, four Papal knights quickly marched passed him then into a building that looked almost like a museum.

"Hurry! We must reinforce our group on the Chosen's party." One ordered.

'What the? Where they all going? Are they heading where I'm heading?' Curious enough, Max followed the group till he came across a sign that says, 'Syback Research Facility', "Shit." Max whispered and went on in. Upon entry, he found the entire party getting cuffed, "What the hell is going on here?"

"Max!" Genis yelled.

"Seize him!" one of the knights came up behind Max and immediately placed cuffs on him as well, "Check them." Suddenly another one of them came up behind Lloyd, checked his ear, and then poked him with some kind object that's a cross between a needle and valve in his shoulder.

"He's normal."

"Ow! What are you doing?" Lloyd asked.

"They're checking to find Half-elfs. Half-elfs are wanted and they look almost like us and…" before Zelos could finish, two more knights were checking Raine and Genis till…

"Sir! We've found two! Two Half-elfs!"

"Genis! Professor!"

"Quiet kid!" one of the knights then squeezed Lloyd shoulder where the needle device struck, "Check him also." He pointed to Max. The knight that cuffed him took off his helmet and checked his ear, looked normal. Then came the needle, it poked his shoulder hard and he felt some pain with it.

"What the hell does this thing do!"

"It checks the blood to see if they're human, Half-elf, elf, or anything else." Zelos answered. The little thing on the end of the needle began to calculate, but then… its calculations revealed something completely wrong.

"Sir, look at this." A golden armored knight looked also, he was shocked.

"A Mana Carrier! Surround him!" all of the Papal Knights ignored the Chosen's Group and focused their attention and weapons on Max.

'Shit… it's blown away.'

"Sir what should we do? We have two Half-elfs and a Mana Carrier. We don't have enough men to keep them all guarded."

"We'll lock them in the basement with the others, and we'll escort these three to the bridge where we'll get more help to escort them to Meltokio." Then two guards took Lloyd, Presea, Colette, and Zelos into another room leaving Max, Genis and Raine with the knights.

"Where are you taking them?"

"I'm not telling you." the knight then put another pair of cuffs on Max for extra secure, "now walk."

Somewhere else in Syback…

"Can't wait to get in a nice soft bed, I felt like I was walking for days." Sheena spoke to her self. Now she was approaching the inn.

"That's because we've been traveling back and forth for hours, it's most likely that we're going to find Max and the others here."

"Most likely? How do you know?"

"You never noticed? I saw that vehicle that Max used to get to Meltokio."

"You mean the 'Warthog'? Where did you see it?"

"It was behind a large bush as we entered. They might be at the inn."

"I guess looking for them went easier then I thought it would be." Sheena and Corrine entered to find a familiar cloaked figure, "Shego?"

The cloaked figure turned to face her almost ready to attack, "friend of Matz…"

"It's Sheena." The ninja corrected.

"I apologize Sheda."

"That's ok, where's Max and the others?"

"At the Research facility, he's been gone for sometime."

"Sheena! Shego!" Corrine interrupted, "look!" the two looked out the window. To there surprise, the spotted Raine, Genis, and Max cuffed and being escorted by at least nine Papal knights. They then walked pass the inn and out of town.

"Shego, you said that they went to the research facility right?"

"Correct."

"I didn't see the others with them, they're probably still at the facility. We have to hurry."

A few hours later…

"We're sorry that we dragged you into this Max." Genis said.

"No, I think it's my fault that we're going to have more bastards keeping guard on us."

"But how do you feel knowing that we're Half-elfs?"

"Does it matter on how you're born? I mean, for my entire life up until now I didn't know that I was a Mana Carrier. Back in Luin after I had that building fall on top of me I some how figured what I was."

"But what are Mana Carriers?"

"What don't know is the history about it, but all I do know is that Mana Carriers can carry unlimited mana, have incredible instincts, and could do things no other race of man can do. What surprised me more right now is that how could Tethe'alla know more about it than Sylvarant."

"Still, how do you feel about us?"

"Come on, it's quite obvious that you're not like the Desians. You guys are the good ones. You shouldn't let what you are get in the way. And haven't you two notice something about some of the Soldiers in the UNSC?"

"That some of them have dark skin?" Raine said.

"And that some speak with a strange accent?"

"Yes, you see? No matter what your skin color is, what nation you're from, what religion you warship, and what gender you are, we're a team. Like us, we're a team."

"It was a nice speech while it lasted Max, but I think it's the end for us." Up a head at the end of the bridge were about twenty-one Papal knights armed with vary dangerous blades.

"To bad that I can't reach my ES (Energy Sword), but I'm not going down without a fight. Thirty against one, I think I can handle it."

"Max, don't do anything stupid."

"I think I am, on my mark, the two of you will run back across the bridge and back to Syback so that you can reunite with the group."

"But Max…"

It was to late, Max whipped around facing on of the knights. Quickly, he stole the big staff thing and thrust it into the knight's gut. The fell back with the staff stuck in him making everybody gasp, "MARK!" after the word was given, Genis and Raine began their run and got away from the battle as fast as they could. A few of the knights were about to go after them, but Max intervene their pursuit by hold the big staff with both of his cuffed hands.

"So you want the quick way eh?"

"I guess I do, or maybe I don't care… or maybe I'm doing this to protect my… friends." He then took the blade part of the staff to brake the cuffs. It felt easy, "My name is Max Demore, a Medical Lieutenant of the UNSC, and I'm also a Mana Carrier… and I'm already proud of it."

"Are you finished yet?"

'Gosh, these guys almost talk like the Desians.' The medic dropped the staff and reached for his back pocket to reveal his ES. As he squeezed the handle, it came to life with a strange sound that was unusual to the knight's ears, "when ever you're ready."

"Get him!"

"Omega Demon Fang!" the big bright form of mana traveled quickly across the ground striking the large group in half… well… striking any one in the center though. But the knights continued their charge, "alright then… Fireball Burst!" twelve fireballs shot out causing damage to the ones in front, "nine down, Shit load to go."

"There's still more of us, kill him!"

Now, Max charged in also. What lied ahead of him were knights holding their weapons in of them in a position that was supposed to be used for against a stampede of horses. But for Max, he easily ran past their weapons and into the group cutting one or two at a time. When he was in the center he had an idea for a move, "upgrade complete… Blade Whirl Wind!" he out stretched his arm that's holding his weapon and began to spin around ten times in less than three seconds striking the enemies surrounding him.

"Reinforcements have arrived!" everyone including Max looked out in the distance and spotted more Papal Knights on their way.

"Shit, this is going to be one hell of a fight."


	22. Halloween Special

Halloween Special!

A.N. this is another special chapter like the fourth or July one, enjoy! Unrelated to the story.

Psycho Grant: "Hey Raine, Max, have you seen Lloyd, Colette, Genis, and Presea? They were suppose to help me put up the rest of the decorations for tonight."

Max: "I think they went trick or treating."

Psycho Grant: "What? It's 4 pm in the afternoon. The trick or treaters don't even come around till seven."

Raine: "They said that they were going to San Francisco."

Psycho Grant: "great… where's Zelos?"

Max: "He's upstairs with 200 rolls of toilet paper and a bow of tissue for some reason."

Psycho Grant: "200 rolls of… I'll be right back…"

Walking upstairs, walking upstairs… KNOCK KNOCK.

Zelos: "Come in hunny!"

Psycho Grant: "Zelos, what the hell are you doing up here with… what the hell!"

Zelos: "What?"

Psycho Grant: "For crying out loud! Put some pants on and come down and help me put up decorations! And no! You will not be T-Ping any houses tonight!"

KNOCK KNOCK…

Psycho Grant: "Now who the hell could that be?"

Running downstairs… Running downstairs… Opens door…

Psycho Grant: "Oh, Kratos and Yuan. Where have you… oh… my… god…"

Yuan: "What's the matter?"

Psycho Grant: "What's the matter? I'll tell you what's the matter. The two of you have your wings out…"

Kratos: "And?"

Psycho Grant: "And you're dressed in facking ballet outfits with tutus."

Sheena: "Oooo Psycho Graaaaant…"

Psycho Grant: "Oh dear god…. I'm going to kill myself… I'm going to kill myself… somebody pinch me…"

Sheena: "Alright, close your eyes."

Psycho Grant: "AAAAAH!! AAAAAAAAH!!"

Rolling off the bed and somehow started rolling down the stairs, do not recall moving the bed last night.

THUMP… THUMP… THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP… BAM!!!!!

Max: "Do you think he'll remember what happened last night?"

Raine: "Most likely not."

Max: "Hell, I'd give him a ten on that last part on the stairs."

Raine: "Agree."

A.N. this took me one day to finish, sorry to rush it but I have tons of homework that I have to do and CH 32 is about to be updated soon.


	23. Tales of Halo CH 32

CH. 32

Rain

Max stood enclosed by more than forty Papal Knights. Earlier, there were more than there are now, but slowly one by one the number of them decreased. Now the knights circled around him only stayed in their positions.

'Damn… what are they doing?' Max thought. He glared back at them looking for anything odd about the group. Then, he heard footsteps behind him. Swiftly turning his head around to identify his enemy, he saw a knight charging at him with his blade held high.

"Take this!" he yelled. As the blade thundered down towards Max, the medic managed to bring up his weapon to block, but his energy sword didn't stop it, it cut it.

"When do you people know when to quit!" without warning to the knight, Max took out a grenade that he still hasn't used, forced it into a small gap between the knight's armor, 'this ought to scare them.' He then pushed his opponent back into the agree crowd and began the normal 'Duck and Cover' routine. A second later, the frag grenade exploded from inside the knight's armor taking out seven of his friends and sending shrapnel into anything within a five yard radius.

"Quick! Lift the draw bridge!"

'This thing has a draw bridge?' Max quickly looked around and noticed a booth and a person at the controls. He then looks out in the distance of the bridge and also notices a big green object coming his way. When he got a better view as it neared, Lloyd, Sheena, Genis, etc, was crowded in the warthog being driven by… Shego? 'Oh my god… does he really know how to drive that thing?'

"It will complete rising in less than a minute. Now kill that monster!"

'Monster… monster? Who's the racist basterds that wants to capture half-elfs huh?' the medic then made haste past the papal knights and straight toward the drawbridge. He began to run on it, soon as it tilted, he was almost walking up it. He then jumped up the rest of the way with both of his hands catching the end of the bridge. Now all Max had to do is try and jump to the other side and he'll be home free.

"Hurry, get the bows ready! He has nowhere else to run!"

'I NEVER SAW THEM CARRY ANY BOWS!!' Max then heard of the warthog coming closer till he heard the vehicle come to a halt. Then it started again, and it came closer by the second, 'no… no he wouldn't…' suddenly, Max saw the nose of the warthog trying to force its way up to jump the bridge, "oh god he is… NO SHEGO!! DON'T TRY IT!!"

"Max we're on our way to save…" the warthog made it with on last push sending it half way across the small jump… but it stopped in the middle and started to fall, "AAAH!!" everybody yelled, except for Colette, she just jumped out and started to fly in circles.

Max watched in horror as his friends fell, but Sheena was just in time to call upon a name that will help them get out of danger, "Undine help!" a women then appeared out of nowhere floating in the air calling upon the water below to catch and elevate them safely to the other side of the bridge, including the warthog, "that was close." Sheena said collapsing to her knees relieved that they didn't die back there.

"Hey Sheena!" Sheena glared up to find Max glaring back at her, "was that you Summon Spirit technique?"

"Yeah, you never saw it before?"

"Nope, but I do have to say that was really cool."

"Thanks, can you come down now."

"Just give me a few minutes and watch out for them." Max pointed toward the crowd of Papal Knights, "Oh yeah, is Shego down there?"

"I'm here Matz."

"You can use the shot gun anytime you want now, but try to keep the casualties low from here on out, cause I think I went a little overboard earlier."

"Understood."

"Get them!" the knights yelled charging towards the Chosen's party. Then Shego charged in by himself, with the help of his alien muscle structure and armor, he jumped over all of the knights and landed in the center. With all the blades aimed at him, the knights thought he would never make it out alive. All the knights around Shego gave one thrust from their weapons and made contact, but then a shock of electricity traveled through their weapons making them drop their only way of assault.

'So they didn't know about our technology, I have the upper hand now, and my shields only took 1.87 of the damage. They have no hope of winning.' Shego then ignited both of his swords that tore through his cloak striking two of his enemies. The knights tried again to attack, but they only got the same results. Shego then struck again this time ripping his entire cloak off revealing his true identity and yelling, "Grunt Rush!" he plowed down the knights as if they were like ants.

All of the papal knights began to panic screaming, "It's a monster! Retreat!"

A minute or less passed by, the area around the party was covered with bodies of dead and wounded knights along with blood, dropped weapons, pieces of armor, and supplies, "wow…" Max said as he reunited with the group, "it's hard to believe that me and Shego could do this much damage… anyway it's nice to see you all again." Raine and Genis then walked over next to Max, "what's the matter?"

"It's nothing," Genis began, "But we're Half-elfs."

"What's your point?" Max and Lloyd said in unison.

"Lloyd…"

"Calm down Genis," Raine said putting a hand on her little brothers shoulder to calm him, "of coarse Lloyd will accept it. Won't you?"

"What? Of coarse I'll accept you guys! The two of you are my friends."

"Then what about the other half of the group from Tethe'alla, are you comfortable about it as well?"

Everyone from Tethe'alla looked at each other before Sheena gave her sayings, "I'm from Mizuho, and we're not exactly main stream ether. We're not that different."

It was Zelos' next to say how he feels about it, "To tell you the truth, I've been treated differently since I'm a chosen and all. So I'm basically cool with all of it."

"I… want to go home." Presea spoke last out of all of them.

"That's right, we have to take her to that Kate chick."

Max then looked at Zelos wondering whom he was talking about, "Who's Kate?"

"A babe that we met back in Syback that let us go if we return and prove to that we have Half-elf friends."

"But… how are we going to get back to Syback if the bridge is up?"

"What about the Rheiards?" Genis Suggested

"But they can't move unless they're charged with electricity." Max then turned to Sheena, "Sheena, you wouldn't happen to know any summoning for anything electricity related do you?"

"If you mean Volt, I haven't made a pact with him yet."

"Oh… then… what have you been doing since you left?"

"I've received new orders from the Chief. I was told to observe you guys of every action you do."

"Great," Genis began, "now we have two people keeping tabs on us."

"But I'm not trying do anything! So… So…"

"Calm down now." Max interrupted, "We know."

"Thanks. And also…" everyone perked up at Sheena ready to hear more from her, "Observing you guys isn't my only objective."

"Really? What's the second one?"

"The other one, is that I have to take you to Mizuho for the vice chief to ask you a few questions."

"Is it because I'm half Mana Carrier? Wait, you didn't hear what I was earlier before didn't you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I guess I should tell you guys." After a good ten minute of explaining what a Mana Carrier is and what power they possess, everybody felt ok on what he is, so Max went onto something he hasn't said, "Raine, remember that night when you asked me to go to the Tower of Mana to look for that book?"

"Yes" the professor answered.

"As I was there after recovering that book, I decided to see if there were any books on Mana Carriers. And it turned out that I found one. It was titled 'Secrets of the Mana Carriers'"

"Wait, did this book have a lock… a magic lock that zaps electricity to anything that tries to open it by force?"

"Yeah……… you tried to open it didn't you."

"Was I not supposed to?"

"No, it doesn't matter now. We should get moving before those Papal knights come back."

"But Max, there isn't any more room in the warthog to fit everybody init." Lloyd said.

"Then I guess I should put every body in seating order before we head to the Fooji Mountains."

Zelos then shot his hand in the air yelling, "Sheena can sit on my lap!"

"Actually…" Sheena began with her own plan.

Thirty minutes later…

"I fell uncomfortable about this…" Zelos said in a tone of voice in which he felt disturbed.

"Oh cheer up about it, it's a perfect order. Max drive, I get shotgun, Genis sits on the professor's lap, Presea sits on Lloyd's, you sit on Shego's, and…" Sheena looked up in towards the sky, "and Colette can fly. She's been following us ever since she jumped out of the vehicle when it wasn't going to make it over the bridge."

"But I don't want to sit on the Elite…"

"Can it Zelos. You don't see me bitching do you." Max said as he kept his eyes on what was in front of them. Then on the console where the radar was between him and Sheena started to make a beeping sound. That's when the medic slowed down the warthog till it came to a complete halt.

"Why are we stopping?" Raine asks.

Max turned his head to face the others. Lloyd and the others stared back at him waiting for what he was going to say, "it's going to rain…"

"How do you know?" right after Shego asked that question, there was the sound of thunder off in the distance.

"Doc," Zelos began, "if we head south we'll find a rocky area that has a few caves."

"South it is."

"Zelos, are you sure there's a area like that near by?" Sheena asked.

"If you want to know how I know about it, I'll tell later on to-"

"Forget it…"

Max drove in the direction that Zelos point out. After almost an hour of driving, quarrelling, and accidentally casting magic on each other, they arrived at their destination, "Is this it?" the entire group looked up at the large rocks before the first raindrop hit the windshield.

"Yep Yep! There's a cave here that can fit all of us and cover us from the rain." Suddenly the rain really began to poor over. Everyone then jumped out of the warthog and followed Zelos to where he was talking about. "We have arrived my hunnies and pet." (When means by pet, he's talking about Shego.)

Lloyd, Max and the rest of the group examined the cave, it was small but at least it could fit everybody, "it's a tad cramped, but it will have to do." Max looked down and found a small area where there use to be a fire, but what was left was the amber, "and let's get a fire started before we all catch something. I guess we're staying here tonight." Max was right, it was getting darker by the minute and it was raining harder which would make it a really cold night.

"I'll cook something up for us to eat." Genis said as he began to go through the ingredients for some stew.

"And I'll go through the list of gels and Gald we have." Raine then took out a small piece of paper and began to check things off.

"Ok, I'll be right back." Max was about to head out again till he was interrupted.

"Where are you going?" Sheena asks.

"Just to pick up a few things from the warthog." Max put on his helmet and went out. He began to jog his way over to the vehicle quickly. When he arrived, he went to back of the warthog where the hidden trunk was to gather what he needed, 'fresh water, medical kit, two dozen rations, two extra cloaks, and a… whoa…" Max glared at the last object or objects he sees in front of him.

"Need help carrying anything?" Max turned his head to the right to find Sheena.

"What the? Sheena what are you doing out here?"

"Wondering if you need any help."

"Well actually…" Max looked back at the things he just looked over, "I guess there isn't really much to carry except for this spare cloak for Shego. Let's hurry on back now before we actually get really wet."

"Right." Max and Sheena then ran quickly back to the cave where the others where waiting. When they entered, the two were completely soaking wet.

"Hey you're back!" Lloyd was the first to speak.

"Yep, and soaked too." Max began to remove his outfit till he was wearing a black t-shirt and dark green pants that almost look like cargos and put his gear next the fire to dry, right next to the stew that Genis made.

"MY CARDS!!" Sheena yelled.

Zelos then came up to her with a grin on his face, "Aaaww, Sheena babe you're all wet. Now…" the idiotic chosen slow began to tug on Sheena's gigantic pink ribbon tied around her waist.

"Incoming…" Max said.

"HEY!"

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

An hour later when everyone has finished eating except for Sheena and Zelos…

BAM! WHAM! BAM! WHAM!

"Should we get Sheena to stop beating the crap out of Zelos?" Lloyd asked after Sheena unexpectedly stopped and collapsed onto her back do to the lack of energy and food.

"How about we feed them something…" Max and Presea walked up over to the two exhausted friends. The two then dragged Sheena away from Zelos while Lloyd and Raine dragged him away too in the opposite direction and see to if they can heal or 'revive' him.

"How long did it last?" Genis asked as he made a plate for Sheena.

"An hour maybe." Max took the plate and took a spoon full of stew and waved it near Sheena's nose.

"Getting her to eat in that condition is less than forty percent." Presea said.

"How do you know?"

"…"

"Alright everyone," everybody turned to Lloyd, "I'm going to call it a night."

"Same here." The professor added on as the two walked off dragging Zelos and Genis and Colette right behind them.

"Alright, I'll be one night watch."

"Should I sleep Matz?"

"Fine by me, take Presea and Sheena with you and don't drag her like they dragged away Zelos."

"Understood…" Shego and Presea then picked up Sheena and walked off the meet the others leaving Max close to the exit. He looked down at the fire and noticed it was about to go out.

"Better get some more wood." The medic picked up his ODST outfit away from the dieing fire.

Max then walked out of the cave and looked around allowing the rain to hit him. He wouldn't be able to find dry wood in this weather, but what if there was some wood in a dry spot somewhere. He stood there gazing around to see where he could start. Suddenly he heard the sound of pebbles being kicked off the rocks. Max then readied himself and drawn himself to the sound. When he turned right past a huge rock, he found nothing, 'strange…'

Before he could turn around, there was another noise, exactly the same sound he heard a while ago. This time, he decided to investigate what's causing it. He then approached the next area where the last sound was, again there was nothing, 'screw it… I'm not playing detective anymore.' For the third time, the sound came to him again, but this time it was close, too close. Max whipped around gripping his weapon and eyed around the rocky terrain till his eyes laid on something unusual.

"What the hell is that?" what he was seeing were two round yellow circles hiding in the shadows. It soon came to realization that what he was staring at was a pair of eyes, but of what? Suddenly it started to move towards him, he stood there keeping his brown orb eyes on and hand tight around his weapon.

It soon came out of the shadows revealing itself, a lion… a mountain loin…

'A mountain lion? These thing live in this world also?' the big cat stopped it's approach, but Max continued paying his attention to the lion like as if the two were in a complete staring contest. The lion roared once at him, but Max did not flinch he held his ground with the rain got heavier and heavier.

For minutes the staring continued. Max waited for what the lion was going to do, he was expecting it to come at him… but instead, the lion snarled once, and began to walk away, 'what the hell was all that about?' Max thought. Realizing that he's been out long enough, he decided to return to the cave empty handed.

As he entered he sat down on the ground removing his gear again laying it on the ground. He then put his back against the wall remembering about today, Syback, the fight at the bridge, and the mountain lion. Before he closed his eyes, he muttered a small question, "Do Mana Carriers stand out in these worlds?"

As the hours pass through the night the rain poured even harder. Everyone was sleeping calmly except for Sheena. She tossed and turned in her sleep having that dream again. She then finally shot up with her eyes wide-open, gasping for air and sweating allover.

'Why does this memory keep coming back?' Sheena then looked around to find everyone except Max sleeping near her. She got up off the ground and walked quietly passed the sleeping party and made her way towards the exit of the cave, 'where is he?' she thought.

Sheena then came across the ambers of the fire that was set up earlier and a few yards away from the ambers was Max. Sitting up on the ground with his back against the wall of the cave sleeping, 'poor Max, must have fallen a sleep while on night watch.' For seconds Sheena stood in front of the sleeping medic. Quietly, she approached him and sat next to him. She continued to examine his face till she let out a small yawn slowly placed her head on his shoulder. Suddenly, Max's head tilted to the side landing next to Sheena's.

Now, Sheena sat there lightly blushing but… she felt comfortable about herself sitting this close to Max. She began shut her eyes completely close. In seconds, Sheena was asleep, once again.

A.N. Hey fanfic readers, I'd like to announce that I will be sharing my artwork that I have been doing for a while to people who like to see. Just so that everyone knows, my artwork may not be the greatest, but it was worth drawing. For instance, I did a fan art picture of Lloyd in futuristic armor, a classmate at school told me it looked like Vash from Trigun, what made them thought of that as the hair. I got some other artwork that I've been drawing lately, email me if you want to see any. Now I have to go do some homework, it might take me the entire day now. So as you wait for the next chapter, read others author's fan fics or draw or listen to some J-POP or some other foreign music, that's what I've been listening to while I was writing the chapter.


	24. Thanksgiving Special

Tales of Halo

Thanksgiving Special!

P.G.(Psyco Grant): Zelos!! Zelos where the hell are you!? You didn't take out the garbage that you agreed to do! Presea! Have you seen Zelos?

Presea: He just returned from Blockbuster about ten minutes ago with Fred.

P.G.: What were they doing at Blockbuster?

Presea: They returned with a game called D.O.A. Extreme Beach Volley Ball 2.

Suddenly as if on cue, Yuan ran past us and ran straight upstairs to my room where Zelos and Fred are with my 360. And I thought Zelos and Fred were the perverted ones around today.

Meanwhile in the kitchen…

Raine: Maybe I should not of put on the Gasoline that I took from the Warthog. I thought it would cook the Turkey faster but all it did was catch the oven on fire.

Max: Nobody cares on what you're thinking at the moment! Just help us put out the flaming bird of death!!

Genis: Max, I used up the extinguisher, and it's still burning……… now it got the curtains on fire…

Max: What!? No! Genis! Put it out with Magic!

Genis: But I left my Kendama in Iselia!

Max: Oh my God I don't know any water magic yet… Raine quick! Go fetch Sheena and tell her that we need Undine to put out the fire and…

P.G.: What's with all the racket in here?

Genis: uh-oh…

Max, Raine, and Genis then stopped what they were doing and stared at me once I entered the kitchen and OH MY GOD MY KITCHEN IS ON FIRE!! MY PARENTS ARE GOING TO KILL ME ONCE THEY FIND OUT!

Raine: Grant, we are so sorry.

P.G.: Just… put it out and fix the damn kitchen. Man… now I have to find another turkey…Shego!

Shego: Yes?

P.G.: You, Lloyd Colette, and Sheena go out and get another turkey, once you come back, go kick Zelos' ass for not helping use around here.

Shego: Understood.

P.G.: Good, I'm going to check in on Regal and Presea.

I then walked into to other room to find Regal and Presea setting up the Salad bar.

P.G.: How's it going you guys?

Regal: We're almost finished. Did you find what we need at the store?

P.G.: Yea, soda, wine, beer, appetizers, obentos, juice, blood…

Presea: Blood?

P.G.: We got about a dozen vampires on the guest list, Russian and French Vampires to be specific.

Regal: Anything else?

P.G.: Yes, water, ice cream and Malts, cookies, milk, rum, whiskey, and-

Regal: Who and how many people are we inviting?

P.G.: Um… the entire UNSC army, the New Covenant, the Flood, the villages Mizuho and Luin, the neighborhood, all of the summon spirits, a dozen vampires, all of the Fanfiction members that live close to the bay area of California, 3 Mafias, 15 gangs, and…

An hour later after thousands of people came…

Regal: I don't think one turkey is going to satisfy all of us…

P.G.: Don't worry, Shego should be back soon with the biggest turkey we'll ever see.

Shego: I'm back…

P.G.: Oh thank god, where's the turkey?

Then a Pelican Drop ship started to fly over the party with a huge object covered with a big white cloth. The ship then set it down and flown off leaving ever body clapping in amazement.

Shego: And about Zelos, I went to do what you asked me to and when I entered, I found him, Fred, and Yuan lying on the ground with bloody noses.

Lloyd: We're missing a guest…

P.G.: Who's that?

Lloyd: Aska the Summon Spirit…

P.G.: I guess we'll just have to start without 'em. Dig in!

I pulled off the white cloth to our treat… and to everyone's surprise… our treat was Aska and his eyes were X out (Zip Zap Dead…). A minute later after the party was quiet, Luna then unleashed her wrath on anybody close to her and then she started to attack everyone else. That's when I decided to call the whole party off and run. When the next time I need a turkey, I'll go out a get it. And I'll make sure that it's not a summon spirit too.


	25. Tales of Halo CH 33

CH. 33

Fooji Mountain Encounter…

It was another one of those mornings in Tethe'alla for the Chosen's group. The rain last night continued but it was less heavy now. Everyone one was still sleeping, except for Shego after bashing his head against the wall in his sleep for the seventh time. The Elite sat on a rock looking at the group for about fifteen minutes until he noticed something, 'where's Sheda?' he thought.

He was right, Sheena wasn't where he laid her last night. He stood up and made his way towards the entrance to the cave. Shego then stopped after feeling something catch a hold of his leg. Glancing down, the Elite found Zelos started to hug his leg while he slept. Suddenly he began to talk in his sleep, "Sheena… Raine… would you like your feet massaged?"

Shego stood there with the urge to kick the crap out of Tethe'alla's Chosen, 'shall I? Or shall I not?' after his thought, Zelos' fingers began to do there work, 'I shall…'

While Shego was raining terror of pain on Zelos, close by Max began to stir after hearing a loud crash, and the warmth of something on his shoulder. He slowly opened his eyes and tried to move his right arm, but something was holding on to him. He then looked at what's holding on to him. Sitting by his side, was Sheena. She was sitting extremely close with her left arm wrapped around his right and her head set leaning on his shoulder sleeping calmly.

'What happened last night?' Max thought to himself. Now he's wondering what to do, should he wake her, or stay as he is now. The medic then felt Sheena's arms tighten around his till he felt a tingling sensation, 'crap, now my arm's asleep.'

Max continued to sit where he is with Sheena stuck to him. He looked at her for a few minutes until he realized that Sheena looked cute when she's sleeping. He had a light blush on his face. He took his free hand and gently shook the ninja's shoulder speaking quietly, "Sheena, hey Sheena…."

Sheena let out low moan and said in a sleepy voice, "just… 'yawn' five… more minutes…."

'Wow… she sounds like me when I began collage three years ago…' "I don't think my arm can last that long…"

Sheena began to open her eyes a bit till they met Max's. After a few seconds of staring, and remembering what she did last night. Immediately, Sheena shot up to her feet with a huge blush on her face, and was trying to find the right words for her to say, "I-it's n-not what you think! You see… it was cold during the night a-and it kept me awake. So I… um… found you sitting next to ambers of the fire so I thought you might be warm enough to… umm…" after running out of words, Sheena looked around and began to run back to the rest of the sleeping group.

Max blinked a few times still wondering what that was all about. He then got up off the ground shaking his arm trying to wake it. He then took out the 'Secrets of the Mana Carriers' book from a large pocket deciding to observe it a bit more before he starts preparing breakfast for the others.

As for Sheena, she approached the sleeping group and stopped after seeing a sleeping Zelos flying in the direction she was coming from. She then sighed in relief that the Chosen of Tethe'alla won't be doing anything stupid to her this morning. Then Shego emerged from the shadows dusting himself off.

"Ah, Sheda. I see that you are well."

"Good morning Shego. Are the others still sleeping?"

"Yes, they all slept while I gave the Chosen of Tethe'alla a feeling he'll never forget,"

"I never thought you would be the one who do that much damage to him."

"He must have had it coming."

The Sheena and Shego heard the sound of the injured Zelos getting up saying, "Wow! That was really rough dream, and I never thought love could be that painful." Zelos then stepped forward, but collapsed under his own weight and injuries, "OWOWOWOW! So it wasn't a dream! Sweet! I just got lucky last night."

"Idiot!" Sheena then came up to Zelos and kicked him square in the face knocking him out again, "That takes care for the annoying alarm clock. Let's go see if we can…"

Sheena was then cut off by a loud sound of thunder, it sounded close… almost too close… like as if it came from inside the cave, "OOOOWWWW!!!!!! GODDAMNIT!!! IT SHOCKED ME!!!!! THE FUCKINNG BOOK SHOCKED!!!!"

"…Change of plans. I'll go check on Max, you go wake Raine."

"Understood."

Sheena began to walk back trampling over Zelos along the way. When she was about to get closer to the area of the cave that Max was at. Another sound of thunder struck again, in the same spot, "OOOOOWWWW!!!! DAMN!! IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!!!"

"Max are you alright? What are you doing?" Sheena walked up to Max who was walking back and forth shaking out both of his hands that were actually smoking.

"I… am absolutely fine… just a little fried." Max then picked up the book of Mana Carriers and put back in one of the pockets of his ODST uniform.

"I'm going to take it that you tried to open the book again right?"

"Yeah, when I tried to open it with my bayonet, the shock it gave me was stronger than before."

"I think I can tell by the vulgar language." Sheena walked up to him holding out a hand, "can I see your hands?"

Max glared down at the hand, then at his hand and then thought, 'eh… why not?' he brought up his hands till they meet Sheena's. The female ninja carefully examined them, her fingers gently touched the burned marks. Max couldn't help but think about how it felt, 'her fingers are soft…'

After examining, Sheena looked up at him and noticed that he was still looking down at his hands like as if he was in some kind of daze, "Max, are you sure you're ok?"

Max the snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her, "your hands there… well… soft…"

Sheena's eyes were opened wide again, she even blushed for the second time. She turned around with her back facing Max, "Th-that's a complement right?"

"I… guess so." Max began couldn't help but blush a tinny bit, his eyes focused on the back of her head. Then his eyes followed down from there, to here shoulders, to her back, then…

WACK!!

Max fell to the ground, but first his head hit a rock… then the ground. Sheena then turned around to face him, instead she found him on the ground, "what was… Max?"

"I'm fine, must have slipped on a small rock or something." 'Oh my god, I can't believe I hit myself.'

"You're bleeding!"

"Huh? Bleeding?" Max brought a hand up to his forehead feeling some moisture, "must be a small cut." Sheena came up to him again to check the small wound.

"It's a cut, and it's not small."

"Good morning Max and Sheena." The two turned around to find Lloyd, Genis, Raine, Presea, and Shego, "we've been hearing lots of racket this morning, what's going on?"

"It's been a bad morning for me." Max answered.

"Besides getting a small cut on your forehead."

"It's not small." Sheena corrected.

"Ya, like getting enough electricity flow through me that's enough to power a city for a year, twice that happened."

"Don't forget about slipping on some small rocks." Sheena added.

"You see? They make a good couple already." Max and Sheena twirled around again looking down finding Corrine smiling up at them.

"Shut it Corrine!" the two yelled at once.

"It's true!"

2 hours later…

Everyone was in the warthog once again, in the same seating order, except Zelos now had to sit on Lloyd's lap and Presea on Shego's. There was no conflict between Shego and Presea even though they were the only two not making a word. As for Lloyd and Zelos, they were quarreling like hell. As for Colette, she was doing what did best, following the vehicle while flying.

"That creeps me out when she does that…" Max said while staring into the small rear view mirror.

"How is that creepy?" Genis said.

"Because it feels like a Banshee is chasing the vehicle. Due to the colors of her wings, the color almost makes it look like one from this distance."

"What's a Banshee?"

"It's a Covenant vehicle, an aircraft to be specific."

"What does it look like?!" Raine asked with her voice growing a bit louder.

"Ask…Shego… I'm driving at the moment." After hearing that, Raine then remember what will happen if you annoy Max while driving.

The conversation went on for some time before their destination came into view. The Fooji Mountains appeared, the mountains became larger with every second that passed. Once they went to the spot where the warthog could not go any further, the party jumped out and gathered what they needed to climb up the steep mountain.

"Ok guys," Max began, "all of you will have to head up there without me."

"Why's that?" Lloyd asked.

"Yeah, why is that?" Genis also asked.

"Remember? The first time we got here, I crashed down in the forest."

"So you're going to go check and see if yours is functional? Man Why didn't you crash on the mountain to begin with…." After saying that, Zelos got another good hit to the head by Max's helmet, "ow."

"Well, at least I had a thick skull to survive the damn fall."

Max then turned to find a small, brown leather tossed over to him and was just in time to catch it, "you might need some apple gels, who knows what might be in the forest." The medic opened it to find five gels, "the last time we traveled down the mountain we encountered some monsters. A lot tougher than your average Sylvarant monsters."

"I see, thanks for the heads up."

Max and the party went to their objectives, Max walked up to the entrance of the forest and examined the area before entering. After scanning for some time, he entered. He walked calmly passed the trees. The trees were tall and full of life, Max wished he could sit around and enjoy a small vacation, but now wasn't the time. When he reached a clearing of the area where he crashed his Rheiard and the fight he had with those people.

"Everything seems to be here." Max said to himself as he scavenged through and around the Desian vehicle. He looked around the area and noticed that the ground was muddy. There was only thing he noticed, there were footprints in the ground. He examined them closely. First he thought it could have been the ones that attacked him yesterday, but the prints didn't look anything like they were wearing. He glanced over at the tree he tied them to, all there was were pieces of rope, "maybe they're…"

The moment he walked past a tree, something caught his eyes. Dangling from the highest branch were the three from before, they were hanging by the neck, "Jesus… shit…" Max cursed at the sight of the three dead bodies. Their eyes were open, but showed no sign of life, "what the hell happened?"

He looked back at the tracks and noticed that they went off into the direction he was coming from earlier. Max then realized that they lead back to the mountain, "damn it, the guys!" he doubled time back to the mountain. He quickly went from funning, to sprinting in less than ten seconds.

Max made a quick stop by the warthog to get more supplies before scaling up the mountain path. He opened up the trunk at the bottom in the back and took out a big object that was the size of a rocket launcher, which was wrapped in orange plastic with a tag dangling on it saying "prototype".

"I can't believe that people that made something important like this be put in a vehicle that would most likely be hijacked." He swung the huge object onto his back and began to make his way up the hill. Upon going up the narrow path on the side of the mountain, he encountered two zombies. They moved slowly towards him, since that was the problem, he took out his energy sword and sliced off their heads easily. He continued up the path till he got to the top, that's where he started to hear some conversation.

Max hid behind a huge rock and peeked out, to his surprise, he spotted the chosen's group, but they were capture and were surrounded by some kind of trap. Not everyone was trapped, Colette was standing around outside of it.

There was a man with long blue hair and a woman with green hair and a strange looking out fit. Off to the side he spotted a few Renegades quickly repairing and putting together the Rheairds. After a few seconds, Max began to hear something coming towards the Fooji Mountains.

"Ah, I see that one of those ships that we took from that pathetic UNSC army has arrived. And I hope that this deal of you taking Lloyd Irving and me taking the Chosen is satisfying." The woman said.

"I believe that deals can be solved by conversation." The man turned around to the sound till Max saw the man's face.

'What a minute… isn't that the Renegade leader Yuan?' Max heard the sound growing louder and louder every sec. The source of that sound appeared, 'where the… how the…' "holy mother fuck…" Max whispered as he saw Yuan standing in front of a Pelican Drop ship loaded with Desians. The ship swerved from side to side like there was a drunk pilot or two at the controls. Also the ship Finally the ship managed to turn completely around allowing ten more Desians to exit the UNSC airship.

"Fools, try and fly the ship properly."

"We're sorry lord Yuan. We've haven't gotten the controls down yet. I keep thinking that that UN- whatever guy we captured and tortured hasn't gave us all the details yet."

As Yuan and one of the Desians were talking, the woman began to make her approach to Colette who was still standing there with her wings out, "Colette! Don't go!" Lloyd called out to her, but it was no use.

"Foolish boy, you're words will never reach the Chosen." The woman was about to take Colette away till she looked down spotting something, "What is this? Why is there such crude key crest place upon the Cruxis Crystal? Doesn't matter, I shall remove this ugly thing at once…"

Right as the woman was about to remove the key crest, something happened, "N…No!! This is a birthday present that Lloyd made for me." Everyone was in shock. The Chosen of Sylvarant spoke.

"Colette… Spoke!" Genis said.

"Colette! Are you back to normal?"

Colette turned to the voices to find her friends in the trap that was keeping them at bay, "What? Why is everybody inside that thing?"

"How can this happen? Still, in the end, the effect might not be long. Now come with me!"

The woman was about to grab a hold on Colette, but luckily, Colette was fast enough to get out her Chakrams to defend herself, "Let me go!" the chosen walked backwards a few steps and then tripped over some funny looking object.

As that went on, Max looked over at the Pelican drop ship noticing that some Desians were getting out some stolen UNSC close range weapons, 'that doesn't look to good.' Max then took out and started to unwrap the big object he took out from the jeep. Once it was uncovered, the medic was surprised. The huge object he took out was the size of a rocket launcher. (WARNING! WARNING! MAJOR SPOILER!!) in fact, there was a picture of how to hold the weapon, like the rocket launcher. The only question is, where do you put the ammo? All there was to see is the instructions and a little bar underneath it that goes from green to red. He sat there with his back against the rock thinking, if there's nowhere to put the ammo, then there must be some inside already. He took some breaths before saying, "here we go."

Max then jumped out of cover also seeing that the woman and the Desians were about to attack his friends, he aimed directly at the drop ship yelling, "HEY!!" he then got every ones attention including the Desians at the ship, "I GOT THE BIG GUN RIGHT HERE!! SO OPEN WIDE!!" with a pull of the trigger, a thin red beam shot out from the weapon and burned a small hole in the ship. A few seconds later, the Pelican exploded sending shrapnel everywhere. The recoil of the weapon forced Max to fly backwards on to his back and drop the big mighty gun.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whooooa ho-ho-ho-ho-Holy Shit!!!" Max said as he got to his feet getting out his energy sword.

"Nice timing bub." Zelos said.

"Max!" everyone else yelled.

"Sorry I'm late." The medic was the first to charge in to attack yelling, "Blade Whirl Wind!" taking out half the Desians.

"Come on guys, now it's our turn." Lloyd was the next to get into the fight, "Beast! Tempest Beast!" after those two attacks, the swordsman took down his enemy.

"Right behind ya!" Genis began to cast his magic taking two of the Desians be surprise, "Gelignite!"

"Winning this battle is at 75 percent." Presea swung here big ax at three other Desians taking two of them out. The last one she did a vertical strike on.

Max, Lloyd, Genis, and Presea then focused their attention on Yuan and the woman, same with the rest of the group. The two opponents were really out numbered, "Do you want to take the calm way, or the hard way?" Max asked. Lloyd was kind of impatient so he went on in with out thinking, "Wait Lloyd, what are you…?"

"Yuan! It's time to end this!" Lloyd gave one thrust, but it was blocked, "Kratos!" everyone was in shock, they weren't expecting the traitor to show up.

"What are you doing here?" Yuan demanded

"Leave Yuan, Lord Yggdrasill summons you."

"Fine, Lloyd, our fight will just have to wait." Wing then appeared behind him and the Renegade leader then flew off with the woman.

"He's an angel too?" Sheena said.

"Believe it or not…" Max said next.

Kratos and Lloyd's conversation went on for some time before. Then Kratos was the next to leave the area. The area fell silent, Max and Shego looked around seeing lots of bodies of fallen Desians, "Wow, the top of this mountain just became a small battle field." He said as he picked up an SMG out of the cold hands of his enemy. "Hey Lloyd?"

"What is it?"

"What are we going to do now? We got Colette back to her normal self, and do forget that the Desians, Renegades, and Cruxis are all of our enemies."

"We know what we have to do, we're going to separate the two worlds."

"That sounds like a good long term goal." Max then began to pick up some of the UNSC weapons, "now, who wants to help me get these things back down to the warthog?"

A.N. Sorry for the long wait readers, I've been busy for quite awhile.


	26. Christmass safty tips

Tales of Halo

Christmas Safety Tips

P.G.: "Hi every one, welcome to another Tales of Halo special chapter."

Max: "I hope everyone knows what 's happening this month."

P.G.: "That's correct Max, this month is December, and you know what that means."

Max: "Yep, Christmas is this month. That means we have to go over the basic steps to have a wonderful, and enjoying holiday."

P.G.: "First off, we'll have Lloyd, Genis, and Presea kick it off with what kind of presents you should get your love ones."

Lloyd: "That's right!"

P.G.: "Hey guys, so what are you…" I stopped when I turned to them, Lloyd was in his pirate outfit, Genis in the Katz suit, and Presea in her Mascot thing, "What's with git'up?"

Genis: "You said it was a Halloween party, so we're dressed."

Max: "That was like two months ago."

P.G.: "What kind of internet are you three running?"

Lloyd: "Cruxiscast…"

P.G.: "You guys better stick with broadband… anyway, explain."

Genis: "Right, Presea, would you like to start first?"

Presea: "Of course, the way to find a good gift, is to find one that suits the person that you're going to give to."

Lloyd: "Like that one time Genis gave Presea a sharpening stone for her birthday."

Genis: "I thought I told you not to tell anyone…"

Presea: "I still have to thank you for the gift Genis."

Genis: "Oh… well… on to the next step!"

Lloyd: "Yep, gift wrapping."

P.G.: "Gift wrapping?"

Lloyd: "yep and here's something for you, Marry Christmas…" Lloyd hands me a poorly wrapped object the shape of a giant egg.

P.G.: "What the hell's this?" the Sheena comes walking in look all around the room.

Sheena: "Corrine! Corrine where are you?" after Sheena walked out, a voice came out of nowhere.

???????: "LET ME OUT!! QUICK!! IT SMELLS LIKE GRUNT CRAP IN HERE!!

Lloyd: "HAHAHAHA!!!"

P.G.: "Holy crap… you wrapped Corrine!" Sheena marches back into the room, hit's Lloyd and yells.

Sheena: "You bastered!!" pick up Corrine, and walks off.

Max: "………Wow…that's my kind off girl right there. Continuing on now, next up is Raine, Shego, and Zelos on how to decorate the tree properly."

Raine: "And I'll be the first to start off. When you set up the tree, make sure not to place by the fireplace, and/or anything else that makes fire. Like the stove, power outlets, lanterns, candles, etc."

Zelos: "Secondly, when you put up the decorations, make sure to do not put any kind of ornament be put by a kid under the age of 5, cause who know if they might choke or something."

Shego: "Lastly, the number one rule of decorating, have fun. Like what I did to make the tree more amazing." Shego takes out something that looks like a detonator. He pressed the button, and suddenly, blue, flaming lights appeared on the tree.

Max: "Wow Shego, where did you get the kind of light bulbs to have that bluish flaming effect?"

P.G.: "Yeah, where did you get that kind of light bulbs?"

Shego: "Light bulbs? Those aren't light bulbs, those are plasma grenades."

Max: "………………………………………………………… EVERYONE CLEAR THE LIVING ROOM!!!!"

P.G.: "Now we'll go live to Regal, Fred, and Sheena who are now in the backyard… son of a-"

-\//3 4R3 -4\/\9 50\/3 T3C-\C4 CT35-

BEEP…BEEP…

Sheena: "Hi every one, Me, Fred, and Regal will now go over tips on Christmas meals."

FR3: "T-4T'5 R9-T!"

Regal: "Fred why are you speaking Leet?"

FR3: "83C453 F33L L 3 T!"

Sheena: "Idiot! How can people understand you if none of them know Leet?"

FR3: "J00 PR083\/, \0T \/\3… 8TC-…"

Sheena: "What did you say!?!?!?"

Regal: "We're wasting time…"

FR3: "Y34- 5-33\4, J00R \/4 \9 5 \//45T3 T\/3."

Sheena: "I'm going to kill you after this!" 

FR3: "50RRY, \/3 0\'T \3R5T4\ J00R \/\Z-0 0R J4P4\353 L4\9493."

Regal: "ENOUGH OF THIS! OR YOU BE GETTING COAL FROM ME!!"

Sheena: "Yes Regal…"

FR3: "5R3 T-\9 5T3R0 \/4\."

Regal: "Especially you Fred…"

FR3: "\//-4T 3\/3R J00 54Y 5T3R0 \/4\."

Regal: "If you call me Steroid Man again, I'll kick you."

FR3: "\/4 3 \/3 5T0P."

Regal: "Alright, are you ready to lose a leg now? Well, are you?"

-\//3 4R3 -4\/\9 50\/3 T3C-\C4 CT35-

P.G.: "Wow, that was a waste of time."

Max: "Hey Grant, do you have a wireless with you so that I can talk to Fred."

P.G.: "Don't you carry one? Ow Raine be careful!"

Raine: "Sorry."

Max: "Hey Regal, put Fred on the phone… hello…Fred? \//-4T T3- -3LL \//-3R3 J00 0\9? \//3 \'T -34R 4\YT-\9 480T C00 \9 TP5. \0\// 50\/3 P00R 5 90\9 T0 -4\/3 4 F0R 5TC \ T-3R 3Y3……… 3XC535 3XC535, '\/ 90\9 T0 T3- C-0\// -4LL \0\/\/, T'5 C-LLY \9-T… 4\ 0- Y34-, \/4RRY FR5C 3\ C-R5T\/45."


	27. New Years Special!

Tales of Halo

New Years Special!

"…" Character talking.

'…' Character Thinking.

"…" Character whispering to themselves.

Max: "Hi readers, welcome to another special chapter of Tales of Halo, tonight we'll be celebrating New Years. Grant may not be here for the time being. He might turn out later. So right now it's only Me, Sheena, Lloyd and Colette."

Sheena: "If Grant isn't here, then what about Genis, Presea, Regal, Raine, Kratos, Fred, and Shego?"

Max: "They're in other parts of the world and we could get calls from them soon."

Lloyd: "Aren't we going over some things about the New Years?"

Max: "Yeah. First we'll talk about ten things on what you should not do next year."

Colette: "Number 1, never sleep with a unsheathed weapon."

Lloyd: "But dad sleeps with an Unsheathed weapon…"

Sheena: "Two, do never at all times jump out of a Pelican drop ship before it lands."

Max: "I did that once…"

Lloyd: "Three, do never speak L33T to a man that has anger management problems."

Max: "If Regal heard that he'd be so pissed. Four, do never, ever, polish your gun with the safety off and with a full clip if ammo."

Colette: "Five, try not to kick or hurt a dog when you're a lifeless puppet with a Cruxis Crystal."

Lloyd: "Six, never leave Zelos unaccompanied at the bath house."

Sheena: "Seven, Never have Raine feed Noish."

Lloyd: "WHAT!?"

Max: "Eight, never enter combat with a twig only three cm long."

Sheena: "Nine, never rush into your work on writing fan fictions."

Max: "Last, but not least, never, ever, ever, kill a summon spirits pet."

Lloyd: "Are we done yet?"

Colette: "I think so."

RING RING!

Max: "That might be one of the guys now." Max picks up the phone and puts it on loud speaker, "Hello?"

Genis: "glückliche neue Jahre!"

Lloyd: "Genis? Where are you?"

Genis: "Ich bin in Gemany."

Max: "Genis, you have to speak English to us. We don't understand German."

Genis: "Sorry, I just got worked up because we just started celebrating the new year just some time ago."

Sheena: "Where are you?"

Genis: "I'm in some big random club… and I feel kind of wasted… I guess I shouldn't have had that new all age beer…"

Max: "… ok! We-are-hang-ing-up-now!"

Click

Lloyd: "Why were you speaking slow?"

Max: "Just making sure he understands what I'm saying."

RING RING!

Colette: "I got this! Hello?"

Max: "It's the green button Colette…"

Colette: "Oh! Hello?"

Fred: "nuovi anni felici!"

Colette: "Fred! Ciao!"

Max: "Wait wait wait… Colette and Fred know Italian? That means Fred's in Italy."

Raine: "That's right."

Lloyd: "You re there too Professor?"

Raine: "Of coarse! I needed to study earths lands and this holiday known as New Years."

Sheena: "It was nice talking to you!"

Click

Lloyd: "Why did you hang up?"

Max: "She did that so that we didn't need sit through one of Raines lectures again."

Lloyd: "I see your point…"

RING RING!

Sheena: "I got it. Hello?"

Zelos: "Kunichiwa!"

Click

Max: "Who was that?"

Sheena: "No one…"

RING RING!

Lloyd: "My turn, hello?"

P.G.: "OH GOD! OH GOD!"

Max: "Grant is that you? What's going on?"

P.G.: "Ok, me, Regal, Presea, Kratos, and Shego were invited to some guys house after watching the ball drop in New York, and them-"

Lloyd: "Is there a short version of what you're saying?"

P.G.: "Yes… I almost got violated by a drunk Brute wearing tutu!"

Max, Sheena, Lloyd & Colette: "…"

Brute: "Little human! Little human! Where are you?"

P.G.: "OH GOD DON'T TOUCH ME!!!

Max: "Where are the others? Hello? Hello? Maybe lost connection…"

Lloyd: "Aren't we done here? I want to see the ball drop in San Francisco."

Colette: "Wait for me Lloyd."

Max and Sheena are the only ones in the room looking at each other.

Max: "Hey Sheena, want to order Pizza and watch the ball drop on the TV?"

Sheena: "As long as the pizza has Pineapple and that we can share it."

Max: "You got it."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

A.N. Now to end the year, I will now let you read the bloopers of the first ten chapters of Tales of Halo, one from each chapter.

Chapter one, Take one

"Use you Flash Bang Grenades!" SGT. Wong Barked making him and four other marines thrown flash bang grenades in front of their enemies… seconds later nothing happened…

"Cut! Who gave those man fake flash bang grenade?"

Chapter two, Take one

"LT. Max Demore, your medical equipment is waiting at the death now… did I just say death?"

take two

"LT. Max Demore, your medical equipment is waiting at the death now… shit! I said it again!"

Chapter three, Take one

The two opened their cells and ran out, but Max trips before his first foot step out, "Ow! Damn it!"

"Cut…"

"Who the hell put this pipe here?"

Chapter four, Take one

"If you guys are wondering what those are. A radio is a tool that can let you talk to other people that have these things to when they're far away and the UNSC stands for United Nations Space Crops. It's an army-"

"You said crops…" Kratos pointed out

"No I said corps."

"…Cut…"

"Damn…"

Chapter five, Take one

Max was back with all the recipes he needed. French Toast was on the menu this morning. He heard footsteps coming from Colette's room to the stairs, suddenly there was a loud crush and multiple thumbs raging down the stairs, "I'm ok… can someone help get my head out of a vase please…"

"How did you get your head stuck in a vase?"

Chapter six, Take one

"A new monster discovered! I shall call it-"

"Elite."

"What did you say?"

"……………… I forgot my line…"

"…Cut."

"How could you forget that line?"

"I don't know…"

Chapter seven, Take one

"AAAAHH!" Max woke up from his dream with a scream and was sweating like crazy. Without warning, his head accidentally collided with the Professors and the two were unconscious.

"Cut, somebody bring some ice cold water."

Chapter eight, Take two

"Proper to die." Then the women ran towards her wielding two paper cards. Quickly, Max got in front of the assassin and pushed Colette back.

"Colette, get back, I'll take care of-"

When the klutzy chosen fell back, she missed hitting the hidden switch causing Max and Sheena to collide. Then the hidden trip door beneath them broke making them fall in.

"Cut…"

Max and Sheena poke their heads out of the hole, "that was unexpected…"

"Yeah, Me and Max almost touched lips."

Chapter nine, Take two

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET OUT OF THOSE ROBES! I checked those robes at least eight times last night and they were perfectly tight! It's impossible to get out that knot! And Max! What are you doing hanging around with our prisoner!………… damn it major errors!"

"No kidding, you made like three mistakes."

Chapter ten, Take three

"Sheena… what would you like? Having an infected shoulder and getting sick? Or not having an infected shoulder and getting to Luin alive and healthy? Your choice……… and you get a free lollypop… and don't for get a tattoo band aid…"

Sheena laughs and talks at the same time, "what the hell…"

A.N. That's all for this year folks. Have a happy New Years and make sure to tell your friends and families how special they are. If you're really looking forward for Max and Sheena love, I drew a picture of the two about to go lip to lip. Check my Profile at the bottom of the page to find the URL. Oh yeah, it's a myspace pic. HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!!


	28. Tales of Halo CH 34

CH. 34

The Day in Meltokio

Part 1

"So Zelos…" Max began, "is this your little in an' out passage into the city?"

The medic and the Chosen's group stood in front of a small tunnel that linked to underneath the city and also it was the sewer system. "Yep yep! This is my ultimate secret passage that I only use to get back into the city after nightfall. The gates are always locked late at night."

Colette was curious so she tilted her head to one side asking, "Why don't you come back after nightfall?"

Zelos turned to Sylvarant's Chosen, "If you want, I can give you some lessons later on tonight."

"Now's not the time, idiot!" suddenly Sheena gave Zelos a good punch to the skull knocking him into the sewage water completely.

"Why did you do that!?"

"Because I wanted to."

"Jesus… will you two stop bickering."

"This has been on my mind, who's Jesus?"

"Who's Jesus? Jesus, is… damn it never mind."

"What do we do now?" Lloyd asked.

"The only thing we can do is take the way that Zelos mentioned. Since all other entrances are locked, we have no other choice but to go this way." Raine said as she stood behind the group reading some kind of book.

"Sis what are you reading?"

"I'm reading some sort of book that I found in the wreckage of that Pelican drop ship that Max destroyed. I did not know that those things could use such things called com-pu-ter chips for the na-vi-ga-tion-al system… what are computer chips?"

Time passes. The group made their way into the sewer encountering a few small creatures that turned out to be enemies.

"Now that was a sick looking starfish right there." Max said as the group moved along. "Lets hope that we don't encounter one bigger than us."

"That's highly unlikely. Those kind of starfish only remain that size." Max looked over at Sheena.

"How would you know?"

"The reason I would know is because I'm from this world, you're not, and I know a lot more of these monsters more than you."

"Well point taken. But what if you haven't seen or weren't told about ones that would be about 30 meters tall."

"You've got a good point… Say Max?"

"What?"

"What was that big weapon you used back on the mountain when you blew up that drop ship? What was the name of it?"

"If I do recall," Max began to think, "I think on the tag it was something called a 'Spartan Laser'. It's a prototype version."

"Pro-to-type?" Lloyd asks.

"It means that the weapon is a model for the original."

"We have arrived hunnies!" Zelos announced. He was making everyone stare at what's in front of them while they stood a few yards away from him due to the smell of what he fell into earlier.

"It's a door…" Genis spoke.

"And a fine looking door it is." Max added making half of the group laugh.

"Well this 'fine' door is our only way into the city."

At that moment, both Shego and Presea walked up to the door and began to examine it. "It would seem that it's locked." Presea said with a calm voice as ever.

"Locked?"

"A stone door that locks, magical."

"Shut up Max."

"Zelos, is there a way to open this door?" Lloyd asked as he began rubbing the top of his head.

"Kind a, but it's all the way over there." Zelos points out to a certain part of the huge sewer room. On the other side was a wheel on the wall. "The easiest way of getting there is by swimming through the deep toxic water."

"Then what about that way? Does that go into the next room?" Max said as he was looking in the direction of a tunnel that seemed to going in the direction of the room next door.

"That way? That way's goes all the way to the end, it's much easier than going this way if the door's locked, and the sewage water is only two feet deep if it isn't raining."

"Alright then let's go." Max said as he jumped into the manure water and began making his way over to the hole in the wall. A second later, Shego jumped in as well. When the two made it to the tunnel, Max looked back at the group noticing that they're not following, "what are you guys waiting for? Come on!"

"Max, you can't be serious." Genis asked. Unexpectedly, Presea went in as well going up to the medic and the elite, "Presea not you too!"

Back in Sylvarant…

Fred sat in one of the seats of one of the two Pelican drop ships that were on their way down to the surface, "How do you feel Fred? Feel any better?" a Major ranking marine asked as he checked his assault rifle.

"I feel fine thanks for asking."

"That's good." The Major stood from his seat and began going over the briefing, "Alright listen up green horns! Our objective is to go into the crashed Orbital MAC gun, get any remaining ammunition, and get out."

"But what if there're any of those Desian guys there?"

"You know the drill, and that's why the other drop ship is filled with Elites and Grunts. They'll take the front entrance of the base since they have shields and optic camo, and we'll take the back entrance and flank any of the bastards."

"Major, we're here, get ready to pile out." The pilot said. The crew felt the ship touch the ground. The marines stood from their seats guns at the ready and then the doors opened.

"Pile out!" the command was given and the UNSC soldiers exited by twos until the Major came out last.

"Landing zone cleared sir!" one of the marines informed.

Fred immediately got in a prone position and looked through the scope of his sniper rifle quickly looking at the back entrance, "no enemies spotted!"

"Good! Move in!" after the second command, all the marines quickly made their way to the back entrance. The Major then took out his radio and spoke into it, "Elite team, how's your end?"

The radio crackled a bit before the voice of a Grunt came through, "how do you work this thing… Hello? Yes, we have made it to the front entrance, no enemy spotted yet."

"Same on our end too. We'll meet up in the armory if no one attacks us. Got it?"

"Yes, we'll see you then… hey! Quit pushing!"

The Major turned off the radio and focused back on his team, "Lieutenant Fred!"

"Sir?"

"I want you to find a good sniping position and give us cover if anything bad comes up, got it?"

"Yes sir!"

Meanwhile above Sylvarant's orbit…

"So Shawn how do you feel after getting shot in the ass by arrow." One of the two UNSC officers spoke.

"Hey! That hurt alright! At least I went through hell to warn the rest of the fleet instead of hiding in the janitors closet where it's safe!"

Suddenly one of the computers on front of them started making a beeping sound after detecting something, "What is it?"

"The radar detected something."

"What is it?"

"That's what I'm try to find out so shut the hell up!" the officer pressed a few buttons, and end by sitting back in his seat, "huh, whatever it was, it's gone now. But the energy readings are… so big."

"How big are we talking?"

"Exactly the same size as the 100rcn. You better inform the higher ups about this."

"Right!"

Back in Tethe'alla…

"What's that?" Shego asked, "It looks to be something I've seen before."

"It's a dead rat floating in human shit water." Max said as he, Shego, Presea, and a big surprise, Colette, made their way through the tunnel as the rest of the group declined and try to go the cleaner way.

"Ew, I think I stepped in something."

"We're already in something." Presea said.

"Oh relax, look on the bright side. Maybe once we get out of here, we can get washed up. Seriously, when was the last time we actually had a bath?" Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked at each other. Come to think of it, when was the last time these guys took a bath? As for Shego, he was wondering what the hell they were talking about.

"We're almost at the end." Max, Colette, and Shego looked over at Presea, then up ahead in front of them.

"Yea!" Colette suddenly sprouted her angelic wings and flew a few inches over the sewage water and out the end of the tunnel. Happy. "Come on everyone! This way!"

"She's always energetic when good thing come in the clear." Max, Shego, and Presea made their way to the end of the tunnel. Unexpectedly, the young lumberjack and Elite stopped walking.

"Matz, you do realize what is ahead of us, correct?" Shego asked.

"Yeah, it's the end of the tunnel."

"Correction," Presea began, "it's the end of the road."

"Presea, what's that supposed to…" After taking another step, Max's foot didn't land on anything. He then fell forward into the sewage. As time passed everybody stared at the spot where Max fell.

"Max?" Colette called out as she flew closer to where the air bubbles were rising to the surface. With out warning, a big, stinky covered blob like thing rose up and began splashing around in panic.

"BRET BE BOUT WOF BDIS BUCBING BINK BOLL!!!" it said.

Colette began to panic thinking it was a real monster. There was only one thing she could do, she took out here Chakrams yelling, "Angel Feathers!" Her weapons hit their target in the head knocking what ever it was back into the water, "Oh, thank goodness…"

Shego and Presea watched from the side and stood there not surprised, "Chosen, you did know that was our ally?"

"Hm?" Colette looked back where she stuck the monster. Soon before her it turned out that it wasn't a brown, stinky monster. It was Max covered in, well, crap, "Oh my! Max I'm so sorry!"

No response…

Meanwhile…

"Man, how heavy is this thing?" Lloyd said as he, Genis, and Zelos were pushing a big block of metal mashed together out of their path, "And where did you say that this path will lead us to again?"

"Do I have to repeat myself bud? Once we move this damn thing it will take us to a dark hallway."

"And the dark hallway leads where?"

"It will take us to another big room with little space to walk, and it's our exit out of here."

"Where's Sheena and Raine then?"

"We're right behind you guys." Sheena said getting attention of the three that's pushing the piece of junk.

"Uh…Hun, would you mind giving us a little help here?" Zelos ask with a smile.

"So you're giving up on that bet you made earlier?"

Flashback…

"Wow! It's huge!" Genis stated while looking at the big piece of junk in front of the group.

"Uh, Zelos, didn't you say that the rest of the way would be smooth after opening that last door?" Sheena said.

"Well… it's all part of the security thing for Meltokio. For the sewer part, they begin from the room that goes up to the west part of the city, then they work their way towards outside the wall."

"And this huge thing is part of the system?"

"Yep. Say Sheena babe, I'll make you a bet."

"I don't want to hear it."

"If me, bud, and the brat can move this thing without you and the hot professor's help. Then I can take you out for dinner tonight. If I lose, then I'll give you 1000 gald. What do you think?"

"… Fine, but I'm doing this just to see you break your back."

"It's on!"

End of Flashback…

"Come on Zelos! Any minute now you can ask for help! I'm ready to collect my winnings now!"

"No way hunnies, this is a job for the guys. We can do it if we can just push harder."

Crack!

"MY BACK!" Genis yelled suddenly falling to his knees.

Meanwhile…

"Did you hear that you guys?" Max asked while he sat on the ground bandaging up his forehead from Colette's attack with some of the small amount of medical equipment he brought with him.

"I believe I didn't hear anything." Shego said.

"Oh, I could have sworn hearing someone yelling 'For the love of Goddess Raine! Don't kill me because Genis broke his back from my idea!' out loud."

"Now that you mention it," Colette began, "I think I did hear that, it sounded like Zelos."

"Zelos?" Max looked around the room till he saw a door up on the east side of the big room, "You three wait right here, I'll be right back."

Max made his way up to the door and entered. It was completely pitch black. He switched on his flashlight and continued his way through the dark hallway. Suddenly his flashlight began flickering until it gave out. "Damn, I have to change the battery," the medic whispered to himself.

"Don't touch me pervert!" after hearing that sudden voice. Max placed his left hand to the wall next to him trying to hear the voices.

'That sounds like Sheena.' Suddenly he felt something or someone bump into him, "Whoa, what the?"

"I said don't touch me Zelos! And take a freaking bath!"

POW!

"What do you mean? I didn't even touch you that time?"

"Then… wait… who did I hit that reeked?"

"Sheena… can you please get your left foot off my groin… so that way I can get up…"

Sheena then quickly got off after hearing the word of a familiar voice, "Max?!"

A Few Minutes Later…

"So that's why you're all smelly and why your head's all wrapped up?" Sheena said.

"Yeah, it was painful and disgusting. I actually had a bad taste of it."

"Gross."

"Tell me about it."

After the group reunited in the room where Shego, Presea, And Colette were waiting, Max and the rest of the group continued on their way to the other end of the room. Shego picked up his paste till he reached Max, "Matz, did you notice?"

"Notice what?"

"We have someone fallowing us. I count three."

"Position?"

"On the ledge next to us."

"I'm going ahead of the group. Stay ready."

"Confirmed."

Max advanced to the front of the group. When he was a quarter of the way there, something came over him. He felt something that was a part of him leaking out of his body. 'Is this my Mana coming out of me?' Suddenly it happened uncontrollably. Images raced through his mind. It happened like a video camera flashing images into his mind, to him it felt like it was only several seconds, but it was really a quarter of a second in real life. The first image was a man hiding in one of the pipes in the wall with a bow and arrow taking aim, the second one was five men hanging from the ceiling holding their knives with their teeth, the last image was the three people that Shego mentioned earlier. The men were armed with clubs and it wasn't just them, dozens of others were hiding behind them armed as well. Suddenly his mind came back to reality. 'What the hell?' the medic rubbed a hand through his stinky hair looking for any pipes. 'That was almost to real.' As he continued scanning the room his eyes landed on a pipe in the wall. When he looked at it closely, there was a shadowy figure.

"Shego! Shotgun! Quickly!" after those commands, the Elite tossed Max the shotgun he was holding onto for some time, and the Elite and the rest of the group looked at the medic wondering what he was doing. Max took aim and fired once at the figure. The first shell didn't do anything, so he pumped again for a second round. The second shot made the shadowy figure jump a bit. The third cluster of shotgun pellets made the figure jump again. The forth ended the figure's life. The body fell from the pipe landing into the sewage water beneath him.

Max tossed back the shotgun to Shego. Then pointed up, "Shego above us!" 'It's so fucking real!' "Everyone get ready for combat."

"We're being ambushed?" Sheena said as she took out her deck of cards.

"I guess so!" Max took out his ES.

"Get them!" The dozens of convicts emerged from the ledge with clubs in hands, "Remember, we need the chosen of Sylvarant alive!"

"Here we go!" Lloyd, Zelos, and Raine were the first to make their move. Lloyd went up to three of his opponents blocking the first two's attack, then did a Hunting Beast knocking them out.

Zelos went in coming into his enemy slashing his sword up, the next enemy swung his club down on Zelos. After the quick block, the chosen of Tethe'alla used his shield to bash the enemy to make him stumble. Then did a Demon Fang eliminating the enemy.

When Raine enter combat, she was already surrounded by six convicts. Four of them came in at once with their clubs high in the air. This gave the professor a chance. She acted quickly as she spin around with her staff stretched out hitting all four of them in the chest. As for the other two, she went postal on their ass's.

Max was going to engage as well. The moment he took out his energy sword and before he could even turn it on, he was then suddenly tackled by a convict that snuck up on him by surprise. He was then brought down to the ground also getting a few good hits to the face. When the convict was going to strike again, Max put his hand up catching the fist right in his palm. Then he used his free hand to strike back. Between the medic and the convict, it was a brawl.

Max managed to hit the convict make him move to the side allowing the medic rollover his enemy so he could be on top of him. Max then landed a few punches on the convict. Before he could land the next one, he felt a great deal of pain on the side of his head, then he felt the feeling of cooled water or something rushing all over his face. Before he could figure out what happened, he felt a tight grip of someone's hands wrapped around his throat.

Sheena pulled out her deck of cards to defend herself from the inbound enemy coming in to attack her. The first convict swung, but luckily Sheena jumped over the attack. As she was in the air she whipped one card across the enemy's face completely knocking him out.

After that was taken care of she took one quick glance around the room. Shego was still firing his shotgun at the attackers above, Lloyd, Raine, and Zelos were mopping up the rest of the convicts, Colette, Genis, and Presea were on the side waiting for a good time to come in and help. Then she notice that that wasn't everyone, 'where's Max?'

"Get the hell off me!" Sheena turn to the voice. The ninja spotted Max in the sewage water being attacked by two convicts. One had a club and the other was just using his fists.

"Max!" Sheena jumped in as well making her way over to help.

'Shit! I can't get out of his grip!' Max thought as he was struggled to remove the hands that were trying to choke him. He spotted the other convict ready to make another strike on him with the wooden club. As it came down, Max brought up his hand up again stopping the strike. But the shock of stopping it made a lot of pain on his hand. What he didn't see is that the convict that was choking him punched the medic in the face again making fall back into the sewage and began choking him again.

'Damn! I dropped my ES somewhere! What hell should I use?!' suddenly the medic began to feel weaker by the second and his vision completely blacked out. Max reached for his bayonet, 'I have one shot with this. If I miss I'm dead.'

"Max hold on!"

'Sheena?'

"He's not breathing!"

'Wait a minute! I'm dead? How? And when?'

"Raine, you have to use the Resurrection on him!"

"I can't! There might be too much sewage water in his throat! Even if I did use Resurrection, it won't work! One of us has too perform CPR."

'Wait… CPR? Hey, if I'm dead, then, how come I can hear them talking?'

"Hey! Don't look at me because is was trained CPR dozens of times before."

"I'm sorry Sheena, but don't worry, we can have Genis shock some electricity into his body and see if he'll come back by doing that, I always wanted to try it out though."

"Fine, I'm going to begin now." Max then felt the top part of his armor being removed and then a pair of hands were placed on his chest.

'If I remember correctly, it should be thirty pumps and breath, thirty pumps and breath.' The medic then paid attention to pumps, but… he only counted fifteen, 'wait a minute, if I can feel the pumps, then that means I'm not dead. And whoever's doing CPR is doing it the old fashion way. ' After the hands stopped pumping, he then felt a hand squeeze his nose and his chin lowered. The next thing he felt was something pressed on his lips and air being blown into him. Max thought this would be a good time to try opening his eyes. After opening them a little bit, the first person he saw was Sheena. She was the one giving him CPR.

"Actually Sheena, I think I was wrong about him being dead…" Raine said. Sheena then looked into Max's eyes completely forgetting that they were mouth to mouth. A few seconds later, Sheena backed away blushing furiously.

"Max! You're alive!" Sheena said.

"Yeah… man I feel like crap."

"Well you did get hit in the head several times!"

"What happened to the guys that were trying to kill me?"

"About them, you see, you went out of control and killed them before I could get to help you. You then just fell back into the sewage like as if you used up the rest of your strength to continue on."

"What?" Max leaned up looking over to where he was sometime ago when he was being choked. Floating in the sewage were two bodies with furies of deep cuts on their body. The medic then looked in his right hand to see that he was still clinching onto the handle of his bayonet. The blade was covered with blood and brown stuff that smelled terrible. "I don't remember anything about killing them…"

"What about those three? They've been standing there for some time looking at us." Before Max could look over at where Zelos, he saw that the chosen's group was standing around him covering there noses due to the smell of the medic. Then the medic gazed at what Zelos mentioned earlier and spotted three other convicts that were backing away slowly, "They don't look so tough. I think I can handle it from here."

Zelos walked forward making the remaining enemies move away more. When the Chosen of Tethe'alla stopped, he was about to take out his weapon. Before he could remove the sword from his sheath, a figure of a man jumped off the ledge next to him and landed on Zelos. The man placed a foot on Zelos' head and looked at the group. The man wore a small white shirt, green pants, boots, his hands were bound by cuffs, and he wore some kind of Shin guards that were made of metal, "If anyone moves, the chosen dies. Understood?" He said.

"Um… uh…" Zelos couldn't find the right words for his situation, "Hey, Lloyd? Everybody? If you leave my here and abandon me, I swear I'll come back and haunt you…"

Lloyd and Max looked at each other and looked back at their friend, "Me and Max just had a sudden urge to abandon you."

Suddenly, Presea ran up to the man and swung her big ax at him. He jumped back dodging the attack. After landing, he looked at the young lumberjack. To the man, he felt like he saw Presea somewhere before, "Your…" Genis ran in casting fireball at the man. He jumped again, this time he landed back with the other convicts, "damn, retreat for now."

"Damn, these guys are too strong, and they smell too." After one of the convicts spoke, the remaining of them left.

"Thank god that's out of the way." Max said as he put away his bayonet and picked up his ES. "Now I can relax… and take a god forsaken bath."

"First we have to go see my friends at the Elemental Research Laboratory, then we'll get you washed up."

"But where are we going to get Max washed? And I need to take a bath too." Colette said as she shown the stains of brown on her clothes.

"We can wash up at my place!" Zelos announced, "my mansion is nearby the laboratory. So we can just zip on over there once we're done."

"How about we split into two groups. The people that need to get washed up really badly should go to Zelos' mansion, while the other group goes to the laboratory. Then we can just meet up at the mansion later."

"That's actually a good idea." Raine muttered.

"Then it's settled! You four go to my place while me and the rest of the huns go to the lab. Come on Sheena!"

"Actually Zelos, you'll be leading the four of us to your mansion. Cause we don't even know where it even is."

"Yeah pervert, go with them." Sheena then shoved Zelos away from her.

A half an hour later…

"Here we are, my beautiful mansion!" Zelos walked up the stairs to the front door. Max, Shego, Colette, and Presea followed. Both the medic and the Elite were wearing the cloaks that were in the warthog so that no one can identify them. No one found them suspicious so far.

"Wow, this place must be the same size as the 4th White House of the U.S."

"What's the 4th White House?" Colette asked.

"Nothing, forget I said anything."

The moment the five walked in, they entered into the main hall where they were greeted by a older man that was dressed in a formal outfit like what a butler wears, "Good evening Master Zelos, welcome home."

"Hey Sebastian, any news came around while I was gone?"

"Yes, a few of the city guard came by earlier today. They told me if the Chosen of Tethe'alla came back, I was to inform of his arrival as soon as possible."

"Oh that's just a bunch of bull, so you can just ignore all that."

"Understood Master Zelos. I was also told that you have two half-elves, a Mana Carrier, and some kind of monster traveling with you."

"Don't worry about them, they're on our side."

"If you say so Master Zelos." Sebastian then looked over at Shego, Max, Presea, and Colette after catching a wiff of the smell. "Master Zelos, would you and your comrades like to get washed up as I make preparations for dinner tonight?"

"That'll be great. Also, the other half of my group of hunnies will be coming soon" Sebastian nodded and walked off to the kitchen. Then Zelos turned to the others, "alright, there're two bathrooms up stairs that has tubs. So you're going to have to work out a plan on who's going first."

"Presea and Colette can go first." A few seconds later Colette and Presea walked up the stairs leaving only Zelos, Max, and Shego. "Now, Zelos, I need to ask you a question."

"What is it Doc?"

"Tell me how much information Tethe'alla knows about the Mana Carrier?"

End of Part 1…


	29. Tales of Halo CH 35

CH. 35

The Day in Meltokio

Part 2

Max laid in the tub with dozens of thoughts racing through mind on what he heard from Zelos earlier. He took a deep breath and sunk his head into the water. He closed his eyes. He was now deeper in his thoughts, 'A race of man that left this world which are known as Mana Carries, will soon came to end all discrimination between all races.' What does it mean?'

Max submerged his head out of the water for some air. He stared at the ceiling like if he was lost in space. He let out a low sigh. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, "Max, it's Genis, I was told to let you know that me, Raine, Sheena, and Lloyd are back."

"Alright."

"Oh yea, are you going to be out anytime soon? Cause some of us would like to get washed up also."

"Give me five minutes." The medic climbed out of the tub and put on some clothes that he wore under his ODST armor which included a black t-shirt, black cargo pants that has small pockets, and metallic boots that only went half way up his shin. At this very moment his armor was covered in brown, smelly, filth, and was being washed by some of the trusted maids of the mansion. He exited the bathroom and before he went on downstairs, he spotted Genis sitting next to Presea. He seemed nervous. Max just walked past them casually while over hearing their conversation.

"Um… P-Presea?" Genis spoke. Presea turned her head to look at him, "well…um… y-you're… p-p-p-pretty…" the young half-elf lowered his head to hide his blush.

"P-p-p-pretty? What does it mean?" Presea asked.

"Oh, I was giving you a complement."

"I see… I think you're p-p-p-pretty too." Genis was completely silent on how Presea kind of acts. It's not that she's quite most of the time, but it might be the way she talks.

Max walked down the steps to the main hall and entered the dinning room to find Raine and Sebastian putting out plates for dinner. Raine looked over at Max as he approached, "Ah Max, how do you feel after that bath. Refreshed?"

"I'm fine thanks for asking. When's dinner?"

"Not in another hour. Please feel free to keep yourself busy until then." Sebastian said as he placed another plate on the table, "Oh, Sir Doc…"

"It's Max."

"Alright Sir Max."

"No, just Max."

"Well, I have a request I would like you to do."

"What would that be?"

"Can you go out and get us a sack of potatoes for tonight's dinner, we're pretty low."

"Sure, should I go out and get it now?"

"But Max," Raine began, "What about your armor? Aren't you going to bring that as well?"

"Don't worry about it, I can just use my cloak. Besides, it'll be a quick recovery mission."

Thirty minutes later…

Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos were in the living room area chatting about the plans for when they get the EC ship. Suddenly they heard the front door of the mansion slammed shut. Everyone rushed to the sound to find Max with his back to the door, sweating like crazy, gasping for air, and a sack of potatoes swung over his shoulders. "Guys… I think I fucked up on our stay in Meltokio…"

"Max, what did you do?" Raine asked putting a hand on one side of her face.

"Would it make sense if I told you that as I was walking back with the potatoes a little kid ran past me as I walked past some of the city guards, the kid yanked my cloak off, and then I ran my ass off on losing the guards and on getting here."

"Damn Max, why did you have to let your self be seen?!" Zelos yelled as he threw his hands in to air when he walked away into a different room, "now security here will be tighter then earlier! We might be here a few more day!"

"Hey! It wasn't my fault that I didn't even notice the kid running. I was lost in my own little world thinking of that conversation you and I had of the Mana Carriers!"

"You and Zelos had a conversation on Mana Carriers?" Sheena asked.

"Well… it's… I don't want to talk about it. It's something I need to solve for myself." Max then walked too the kitchen with the sack with Sheena following behind him. After the medic dropped the bag and turned to the ninja, "Sheena listen, there's nothing to say, really. Everything's cool."

"But Max I…"

Before Sheena could finish, a maid came rushing into the kitchen, "Sir Doc!"

"It's… MAX!!!" after yelling, he pounded his fist on the kitchen counter. Sheena and the maid were surprised by his attitude.

"Um… Sir Max, we have a problem with your armor."

Max looked at the maid raising one eyebrow, "What?"

A minute or so later, the maid led Max out side where his armor was drying with Sheena following him again. When Max saw his armor, he wouldn't believe it. "Well, as you can see, we used the wrong soap to wash it. So your armor came out dyed… well… white." The maid was right, his armor was completely white except for the visor on his helmet.

"How in fucking hell did it…" Max began to mutter to himself. A second later he left going inside on the urge to explode.

After Sheena watched Max retreat inside, she then turned to the maid, "you did remove all the items out of the pockets right?"

"Yes we did, we placed it right over there."

"That's good…" Sheena gazed back at the doorway that Max enter through, 'Max… I'm worried about you…' Then Sheena walked inside as well. First she walked through the kitchen, as she walked, she saw where Max pounded his fist. There was some specs of blood right over a small crack. She then looked over at the sack of potatoes noticing that there were small stains of blood on it as well, "now I'm deeply concerned about him." Sheena muttered.

"Then why don't you go check on him?" The female ninja looked down to see Corrine.

"You think I should?"

"Most defiantly!"

Max walked through the hallway on the second floor of the mansion heading to his assigned bedroom that he'll be sleeping in later. He walked in closing the door behind him. Then he sat on the bed looking at his hands. There were small scratches that were bleeding a bit still, 'why the hell did I go through a rose bush just to lose the guards that were chasing me? Well, I lost them anyways.' He laid back on the bed closing his eyes and decided to rest before dinner's ready.

He laid there for minutes with many thoughts as before. Then there was a knock on the door. Max just rolled over facing away, "Max, are you there?" Max didn't respond, he lay there silently till he heard the door creak open. He turned his head just enough to see who was entering. Sheena stood there looking back at him with her arms crossed. He then rolled onto his back staring at the ceiling as the ninja approached him, "Max, how are you feeling?"

"Tired."

"I see." There was silence between the two for a short amount of time, "and I notice that you're under a lot a stress and pain right now so… say, can you sit up for a moment?" Max did as she asked and sat up on the side of the bed. She then sat down next to him holding out a hand, "may I see the cuts on your hand?"

"How did you know my hands had cuts?" Max asked as he brought his hands up to Sheena to examine them.

"There were stains on the sack that you brought back. Huh, your cuts don't look too bad."

"Funny, they were bleeding a bit a while ago. Maybe it stopped."

"Maybe. Do your shoulders feel stiff?"

"What?" Sheena then put a hand on Max's shoulder.

"They do feel a little stiff. Here, lie down on your stomach."

"Um… ok." The medic laid on his stomach on the bed, "what now?"

"Just stay calm and try to relax."

"But what are you planning to…" before Max could finish, he felt a hand placed on each shoulder. It didn't take long to know it was Sheena about to give him a massage. He then felt the fingers start moving around slowly till one of the fingers landed on a pressure point. Instead of feeling some pain, he felt comfort, "whoa…"

"Feel any better?" Sheena asked.

"A bit, thank you." There was then a moment of silence again between them. Sheena lowered her head so that she could speak into Max's ear.

"Max, I need to apologize."

"For what?"

"Back in the sewers, you know? The time when we thought you drowned and the part where I tried to give you CPR."

"Why do you need to apologize for that?"

"Because I gave you CPR and after Raine said that you were alive the entire time, yours and my lips were… well… locked…" Sheena then let out a little blush.

"It was probably an accident. Delayed reactions to news and messing up on who's alive or dead. It happens."

"Are you saying that it's alright?! We were worried! I was worried…" Max rolled over and sat up. Sheena sat next too him on her knees staring at him. They both traded gazes into each other's eyes. Suddenly, the ninja leaned over towards Max putting her arms around him, "Please, don't ever say everything is ok. I know when you're lying. Please tell me what is it."

"Sheena, what's been on my mind is something I need to solve by myself. Because I have a feeling that if anyone that might be traveling with us including you that help me on my own kind's history, might have to pay the consequences."

"But you can't be putting all that weight on yourself."

"But I have too." Max the placed his hands on the side of her head bring her forehead to his, "you hear? I have to do it on my own."

"But I don't even know what you're trying to solve." Sheena's arms then tightened around Max. "Alright, but remember that you can let me or the others know when you need help."

"Alright." Max was about to get up and leave, until Sheena reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait a minute, where do you think you're going?" Sheena then yanked him back onto the bed making him fall onto his belly. "Let me finish giving you a massage before dinner."

"And why are you doing this?" the medic tried to struggle free, but Sheena jumped onto his back with her knees right by his hips pinning him to the bed.

"Like I said, I'm concerned about you and I don't want you to be pissed off while having dinner."

"Yes mother…" Max said sarcastically.

"I dare you to say that again!" Sheena yelled as she smacked the back of Max's head.

"I don't know, that whip to the head maybe gave me brain damage." Instead of hitting him again open handed, the female ninja hit him with her hand balled up into a fist, "ow… ok I'll stop now."

"Good."

Back in Sylvarant…

Fred sat nearby a window for hours in an abandon room on the second floor that was part of the garage for vehicles. His sniper rifle was already set up at the windowsill. A rocket launcher that he found with only two rockets in it and two extras laying next to it, was leaned against the wall along with the two extra rockets that were with it. In his right hand was his SMG and in his left was a hand held radio.

The sniper let out a small yawn as he heard the conversations going on the other end of the wireless, "Sir look what I found." A voice of a marine said.

"Good, now get those grenades over with the rest of the supplies we found."

"What do these do?" a Grunt's voice came next, "they look like those kind of foods that you humans eat called chocolate."

"DON'T TOUCH THOSE!! PUT THOSE DOWN!! DON'T EVER, EVER, **EVER** TOUCH THAT C4!!"

Fred then let out a bigger yawn due to boredom. He then looked out the window. There wasn't much to look at though. All he could see was torn down tents, small impact craters, debris, vehicle wreckage, and lifeless bodies of UNSC personnel, Elites, Grunts, a few Hunters, and a lot of Desian corpses, "It was pretty hectic that day." Fred muttered. He looked at the time, 7:50 PM it said. Although, the sun hasn't fully disappeared from view yet, but it's getting darker every minute.

"Lieutenant Fred…"

Fred brought his wireless up to his mouth and spoke into it, "Yes Major?"

"We're almost done here. Get your things together and meet us back at the LZ."

"Ok, meet you there." The sniper was about to his sniper rifle and rocket launcher, but then he heard the sound of tank treads getting louder and louder. He looked out the window to see two Scorpion tanks moving towards him. Behind the two tanks were twenty Desians all armed with SMGs. Fred took out his radio and whispered into it again. "Major… Major do you hear me? Over."

"What is it now Lieutenant?"

"We got company. It's the Desians." HE placed his back to the wall and peeked out through the window, "I count two Scorpions, and twenty of their infantry."

"Hold on, we're approaching our exit. Let us look out and see what we're dealing with here………… ok we don't have that kind of firepower to take those down."

"Hold on… Hold on…" Fred watched as one of the tanks stopped in front of the window where was at, while the other one went around and stopped next to the garage door. Both of the drivers got out and met up at the tank near the window. He then saw the group of Desians move towards the torn tent area and then began to scavenge around it. "Um, it doesn't seem like they'll be leaving any time soon sir."

Back in Tethe'alla…

"Do you feel any better?" Sheena asked Max as the two walked down the stairs to the dinning room.

"A lot better thanks." Once the two walked in, they found that everyone else were already in their seat putting food on their plates.

"What were two doing?" Zelos asked sarcastically.

"It's not what you think so get your mind out of the gutter." Max said calmly when he took a seat between Lloyd and the professor.

Everyone ate silently at the table. After Lloyd finished his forth plate, he looked up at find Zelos was done with his forth round as well. When their gazes met, they gave each other strange looks reading, 'it's on!' they then rased their plate in the air yelling, "more please!"

While waiting for another round, Zelos looked over at Sheena and see if he could try getting any action from her. Once looking at her, he notice that she only made it through half her meal and she was watching Max who was playing with his food instead of eating it.

"Acho!" Sheena suddenly let out a sneeze making everybody look towards her. "Excuse me… Acho!"

"Are you ok Sheda?"

"I'm fine Shego… Acho!"

"You sure you're ok? Sounds like you got a runny nose." Said Max.

"I'm fine really…"

"Well, we are heading into the raining season." Sebastian announced as he point out the window as it began to rain. "She must have gotten it during the last down pour last night. Miss Sheena, I would suggest that you should go to your room and rest. It also seems that you didn't get enough to eat so I'll send someone up with some soup soon."

"Fine…" Sheena left the table and made her way out of the room. Once she walked out to the bedroom she was assigned to, Max got up from the table.

"I'll be the one to make her soup." Max then walked off towards the kitchen leaving everyone else a bit silent until Genis spoke up.

"Is it just me or has Max and Sheena been getting a lot closer lately?"

"Now that you mention it, it seems that they have been getting a lot more closer. It almost sounds like they're actually boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Well, we should let them be." Raine said calmly as she continued her meal.

"But… but… isn't Sheena my babe?" Zelos complained.

"From the look of things it looked like she wasn't yours to begin with."

Max entered the kitchen and looked around. There were lots of dirty pots everywhere. He let out a sigh and began digging around the pile till he found a clean one. 'Ok, from the look of things, I should make her chicken soup.'

Sheena sat up in bed yet again looking over her cards. She was now wearing PJs that were in the closet for guests, they were light blue. Corrine was sitting next to her watching. "Are they all there?"

"Yep, except for this one, which is now all covered with crap and stuff…" the ninja held up a spell card that had dark brown stains on it. "I should see if it could still be useable tomorrow."

Sheena then took off the small ribbon that tied back her hair letting it droop down. She then laid back on the bed letting out another sneeze, "Wow Sheena, you sound pretty sick."

"Yeah, this sucks though." Suddenly Corrine's ears perked up once he heard something that Sheena couldn't even hear. He even sniffed the air. He showed a smile before picking up Sheena's ribbon and ran out of the room with it. "Corrine! Where are you going? Comeback with my ribbon!"

Sheena jumped out of bed sneezing again as she made her way to the door. She looked out in the hall seeing that no one was around. Before going out to look for Corrine, Sheena pulled back her hair and kept it pulled back with one hand. She didn't want to have someone from the group see her with her hair down. She would feel a little embarrassed.

She walked out into the hall quickly gazing around. "Corrine, Corrine where are you?" after calling out, Corrine dashed past her down the hall and made a left turn. "Hey! Where're you going?"

She quickly went after him silently so that she wouldn't make a racket on the second floor above everyone else. After making one swift, sharp turn, she noticed that she was now falling into a flight of stairs. She wasn't prepared to go down the stairs yet. In fact, she forgot that those stairs existed. But there was someone else that laid directly in front if her, Max. He stood there eyes widening with a tray of soup in his hands.

Sheena's heart skipped a beat knowing that she wasn't going to be able to avoid falling down the stairs and ramming into Max at the same time, 'oh crap…' She thought.

Their bodies collided and tumbled down the stairs like two toy balls that were thrown by a five year old. Max was the one that landed at the bottom first. He leaned up and felt a great deal of pain on the forehead from Sheena's foot.

"What was that?" Lloyd, Genis, Zelos, and a maid walked in finding Max and Sheena in an awkward position one on top of the other. Both of them also had swirls in their eyes. Corrine came out of hiding with a bowl that was once filled with soup on his head.

"Oh dear, that didn't turn out what I expected."

"Damn… it… Corrine." Sheena muttered before passing out due to dizziness.

"Hey look! Sheena has her hair down! I know that happens once every full moon. Ha!" Zelos laughed.

"Max, how many fingers am I holding up?" Lloyd asked the dizzy Max as he held up three fingers. Max's vision kept making everything look like it was two times of what he saw until it stopped and he could see the number of fingers that are held up.

"Five in a half…"

Lloyd looked at him funny before saying, "close enough…" the swordsman then tried to help Max to his feet, but was having trouble, "hey, get a grip Max. Can you stand?"

"Of course I can." Max tried to walk up the flight of steps to the second floor, but upon going up the first step, his foot slipped causing him to fall forward bashing his head on the forth step with a 'thunk!' His unconscious body slid down till part of him was on both the stairs and the first floor.

"Genis, you better go get the others. We're going to need help getting them to bed…"

Genis rushed off to everyone else to tell them what they heard and found. Minutes later the young half-elf came back with Colette, Rain and Shego behind him. "I see that you weren't kidding." The professor said. "Since Sheena and Max are having a bad day, Max especially. I think we should put them in the same room."

"Which one? Sheena's or Max's room?" Genis asked.

"It's most likely Max's. Cause his has a spear bed. Wait, why are we putting them in the same room together? Doesn't that sound a little suspicious" Zelos turned to everyone else for an explanation.

"So that way we have some people with bad luck shared a room. It's just like some math saying, "If you times two negatives, it will end up being a positive." Doesn't makes sense?"

"Sis, I know what you're talking about. But we're not talking numbers here, we're talking people."

"Guys," everyone turn their attention to Lloyd, "Max is coming around."

"Shiiiiiit… what the fuck happened?" the medic said making his way to his hands and knees.

Zelos walked over to a table picking up a empty metal vase and came back with it holding it high in the air before saying, "Hold on Doc, we're still trying to figure something out here." The Chosen of Tethe'alla bashed Max over the head with the vase knocking him unconscious again. He then turned to everyone else who was staring at him with wide eyes. "What?"

"Was it really good enough to knock Max out again?" Lloyd asked.

"Umm… whoops…"

A.N. If some of you are wondering why Max's ODST armor is white is because I think it might be cooler if he had different color armor, and the second fanfic I posted "Where Am I Now" which I haven't updated in a really long time, will be having a new chapter sometime this month. I promise you, I will make sure that it is longer and better.


	30. Tales of Halo CH 36

CH. 36

The Dream

And

The Sniper Night

'Wh… where am I?' Max thought as he now stood the middle of a large field of tall grass. He gazed around spotting two figures somewhere off in the distance. 'Who's that?' he then started making his way to the figures at a steady pace walking over the green grass.

Without noticing, a white fog began rolling in around him completely blocking any sight of view, but he kept moving. Max then stumbled a bit after stepping on something that wasn't grass. Looking down he saw that he was now standing on stone tiles, almost like the one in Meltokio. That didn't matter right now he has to figure what's going on

After taking five more steps, he was finally out of the fog, but he was somewhere else now. In front of him was a crowd of Papal knights gathering around the entrance to Syback's academy trying to get into the building. 'Wait a minute, this is the story Zelos told me about. A Mana Carrier tried to escape with a half-elf from the Syback Academy but was killed before he got to the entrance. Maybe I'm just have vision of it or something.'

"Demore!" one of the knights yelled out. "We've got your only exit blocked! Surrender yourself and we might spare your life!" Suddenly an explosion of blue flames tore apart the front door and sent flaming bodies in different directions. Max brought a hand up blocking out the amount of light that came from the explosion from blinding him.

'Demore?' Max thought.

A man came running out blades drawn. He had long hair that was pulled back into a pony tail, had a short beard, wore a vest made of animal fur, pants that were made out of the same material, and had two weapons. One was a short sword and the other was some sort of dagger. He fought his way through the crowd of knights skillfully. When there was enough room for the man, he stuck his weapons into the ground directly next to each other. He then put one hand high in the air yelling, "Earth Shatter!"

He slammed his hand on the hands of his weapons causing some chunks of stone shooting into the air from the ground, then shattered into several different pieces in the shapes of needles, and began to rain down on the group of attacking Papal knights. The attack took out half of the group.

Suddenly the Papal knights pulled back several feet. Some stayed in their position holding onto long piped shaped weapons. These weapons were all aimed at him with the sunlight reflecting of them. As soon as the knights were in place, the ones holding the cannon like objects shot out some kind of blue gel at the man.

The man dodged left and right till only one gel hit him in the shoulder. The gel had a transparent blue look kind of like ocean water. A millisecond later the blue gels began to spread like wild fire covering the man. The man collapsed on his knee like if his energy was being drained.

When the gel covered up most of his left arm, it stopped its progress. A papal knight in different color armor that was different from all the rest, came forward picking up the dagger and went up to the man. "Pope… why do you intend to try such… terrible things… to this world…" he said with a weak mutter as the man in the papal knight armor removed his helmet revealing the Popes face with only a short mustache and seemed only a few years younger.

"I have no idea what you're chattering about…" the Pope whispered to him, "Smith Demore…"

Max was suddenly shocked after hearing the name. When the UNSC medic looked at him closely, picturing out the long hair and the beard, He then mouthed at the familiar face, "dad?"

"…You're hereby guilty of trying to attempt murder of the king of Tethe'alla on the same night when Miss Wilder was killed by a Half-elf…"

"That's a lie…"

"And your punishment is immediate death… and what evidence do you have to prove that you're innocent?" the Mana Carrier, Smith, said nothing. "Thought so…" the Pope then placed his knife against the Mana carriers neck asking, "Any last words Demore?"

Smith, staid perfectly calm looking up at him, "A race of man that left this world which are known as Mana Carries, will soon came to end all discrimination between all races… and bring peace to the three worlds…"

"There are no three worlds…" The Pope readied his execution weapon, "Are you finish?"

"I have one more thing to say…"

"What?"

"If my son ever does come here… I'm going to make a bet that he'll really fuck you up…" Then it happened, the Pope used the knife to cut Smith's head clean off.

"NO!!!" Max yelled waking himself from his dream. He rose sitting up in bed looking around the bedroom. The room was dark showing the sign that it was really late in the night and could hear the sound of raindrops hitting his window like as if someone was throwing pebbles. He the let out a sigh as he rubbed a part of his head where he got hit with the vase that Zelos used to knock him out.

"You can't sleep too?" Max turned his head to the left finding another bed next to his with Sheena sitting up wade awake.

"I just woke up. So that means I was trying to sleep, but instead I kind of got a dream or nightmare or something…" Max then crossed his legs, "So what about you? How long have you've been up for?"

"Only a few hours I think. All because of that racket." Sheena answered by pointing her head at the window. "You think it might ever die down?"

"I don't know, it's coming down hard." Suddenly a powerful gust of wind hit the window forcing it open, letting all the rain pour in. Max and Sheena immediately got out of their beds and rushed to the window getting there at the same time.

As they were trying to close and lock the window, something hit Sheena's hand really hard and fell to the floor. She did a quick glance on what hit her after they completely closed the window. She spotted a small white ball of ice that was the size of a golf ball. "Hail?"

"The size of that hail doesn't seem like a good sign…" without warning, the hail began striking at the window simultaneously till it shattered the glass. The pieces fell on the two's feet. Luckily for Max he managed to not get a single cut.

"Ouch!!" Sheena yelled as a piece of glass fell on her left foot giving her a deep cut.

"Sheena!" Max took a step towards her without think about the glass. "Ow god damn it!" Now both of their feet had small cuts from the glass and hail hitting their legs really hard. The medic looked around trying to find a escape for them seeing that Sheena's bed is within jumping range. "Sheena can you jump?"

"Kind a…. ow!"

"Alright! Let's try jumping on to your bed NOW!!! Max was the first to go. He jumped and made it. He then rolled over to the side quickly so that Sheena could get on. The ninja jumped making it as well. Now they both lade on the bed trying to catch their breaths. Max then sat up turning his head to Sheena, "Sheena, let me look at your feet"

"Sure…" the ninja moved her feet for Max to examine. He looked all around her feet trying to see if there was any piece of glass in her.

"I don't see any shards of glass so far." He held a hand over both of her feet saying, "First Aid Flash!" after the flash of light that came from his spell, all the cuts on Sheena's feet were completely healed. "Feel better?"

Sheena moved her feet around and turned to him, "a lot better thanks. You never stop to amaze me somehow" Sheena then went over to Max, "Now let me look at your feet." Max did as she said and brought his feet up for her to examine. While looking, she spotted a very small piece of glass in one of the cuts in his foot.

"Anything?" he asked.

"There's one little piece of glass."

"Ok then go for it."

"What?"

"Go ahead and take it out."

"But what am I going to use to pry it out with?"

"Why don't you use your fingers."

"Are you serious? I'd rather use chop sticks to get this one out." Max and Sheena traded gazes till one of them had a better idea, "fine, I'll use my fingers… you ready?"

"Go ahead…" Sheena then slowly dug her thumb and pointer finger of her right hand into the small wound. Max's leg twitched a bit after felling the pain. Finally, the female ninja removed what she was getting out and let out a sigh.

"Ok I got it out."

"Good, now let me try something…" then Max thought really hard on something, the look on his face was unreadable for Sheena to tell what he was thinking. She then gazed down at his feet seeing specks of blue light coming out of each cut. The light the narrowed and disappeared along with the cuts.

"Whoa…" Sheena said at the amusement of what she just saw. "How did you do that?"

"If I do recall, remember when we went to the Asgard Ranch to get the prisoners out and defeat the Kvar guy? I think I stumbled upon this skill around that time." Max then looked over at the glass-shattered window and back at Sheena. "I think we might need to move to a different room to get the rest of the night to sleep."

"Why not the living room of the mansion? I think that room has a fireplace." Sheena then began to gather the covers of her bed but since Max was on it also, she pulled really hard making him roll off slamming his body onto the floor.

"Ow… couldn't you have waited for me to get off first?" the medic got up and went to his own bed and gathered his covers, "and that was an insane amount of strength you used to get me off the bed."

"Ah well… you know… training and stuff…"

The two left the bedroom and made their way down stairs. When they got to the living room, they both spotted a fireplace, a rug, and a sofa. They looked at the sofa, then at each other. The look in their eyes seemed like competition. Max then let out a sigh, "go ahead, the sofa's all yours…"

"You sure that you don't want to race for it?"

"Sheena, I know I've been having one hellish day today. Even if we did race for it, I would somehow magically slip on the rug and my head would fall into the fireplace catching on fire… I really don't want to risk it."

"Thank the goddess that you got washed up after you got back from the sewer." The ninja then went over to the sofa placing her covers on it for her to sleep with. While she was doing that, Max put his covers on the rug in a small pile and went over to the fireplace to get a fire going.

He crouched down seeing that the only things he needs for a fire would be wood and something to light it with. "Hey Sheena, do you know where Zelos keeps the firewood?"

"I think he keeps it out side in the backyard under a tree somewhere."

"That's wonderful… it's raining and hailing right now. I don't think I would last a second out there."

"What about that big armor thing you use?"

"I'm not going to even bother. Do you know how much time it takes to put on all of that? I guess we're just going to go with the temperature we have now."

"Too bad for you that you gave up the sofa… mmmm it feels so nice and warm" Sheena said sarcastically as she lade on the sofa covered up in her own blankets. Max sighed and rolled his eyes. He then walked over to her and moved down to her eye level and spoke.

"Scoot over…" he said making Sheena look up at him in confusion.

"What!"

"JK…"

"JK?"

"You know, JK is a short way of using the initials of the word Just Kidding." He then went over to his pile of covers and got them straightened out for himself to sleep in.

"D…Don't tease me like that…" Sheena said as she blushed. She then covered herself more in her covers just to get to sleep faster, but the position she was in felt really uncomfortable. She rolled around a bit but had no luck finding a position to sleep in.

"Having trouble there Sheena?"

Sheena rolled once facing towards Max with a more massive blush then before. "Does it look like I'm having trouble!? Actually it's really cold all of a sudden!" She said keeping it at the tone that no one was going to be woken up by.

"If you want Sheena," Max began, "you… uh… you can sleep next to me… again…" after saying this, he began to blush a little. Sheena looked over at him.

"…You're teasing me again aren't you?"

"I'm offering my heat… does it look like I'm teasing?"

Meanwhile back in Sylvarant…

Fred leaned against the wall next to the window non-stop for hours ever since the Desians came into the area. The other group of marines, Elites, and Grunts that went to go get any supplies left were in the same spots as earlier. They checked their ammo and made continuous yawns as they waited for orders.

'This is so fucking boring…' the sniper thought as he let out a small yawn, 'and that is the first yawn I've made in twenty-three months.' Unexpectedly, his radio went off with quiet beeps. He took it out, hit a button, and placed it closely beside to his ear.

"Lt. Fred… how are hanging in there?" the other voice from the other line of the connection said.

"I'm doing fine Major" Fred responded while he peeked out the window, "and it would seem that they don't have any point of interest of coming into the garage."

"The last time I called you said you found a rocket launcher right?"

"That's right sir." Fred then glanced over at the rocket launcher. "Two rounds loaded, two rounds waiting to be fired."

"Alright that's great. Listen, I know you have a good view point of the area, can you see what's going on with the Desians?"

"Oki Doki…" Fred looked out the window. Looking through the scope of his sniper rifle he spotted almost half of the amount of Desians sleeping and the rest were up and about stuffing their mouths like Vikings after a kill. The view of this made Fred roll his eyes. "Just looking at all them is making me hungry…"

"Oh really?" a voice that suddenly came out from behind causing Fred to spin around. When he got a full view of who's behind him, there were 3 Desians. Two armed with swords, one held and aimed a shotgun at Fred.

"Oh fuck!" the sniper quickly moved to the side avoiding the first shot from the shotgun. While he dodged he tripped landing hard on his back. Fred then tried to aim his sniper rifle with one arm, but some long cord came out of nowhere wrapping itself around the long barrel of the gun and was yanked out of his hand.

"On your feet now!!!" the Desian with the shotgun commanded. As Fred got to has feet, he then noticed that one of the Desians that was armed with a sword also had a whip. He then placed his hands behind his head. Then his right hand sank slowly to his neck, which was going something hidden behind him on his back. On of the Desians approached him slowly with a sword pointed at him. When the Desian was close enough, Fred then lifted a leg kicking the sword out of his enemy's hand, and then with out warning to the Desian, the sniper pulled out a combat knife that was hidden in his UNSC uniform and stabbed the Desian in the neck.

After stabbing the Desian in the neck, he spun the body around and used it as a meat shield from the incoming rounds from the shotgun. He then took a few steps forward with the body. Then the Desian armed with whip cracked it around the corpse's neck and yanked it out of Fred's hands making him in aim of the shotgun.

Before the weapon could be fired, two beams of light came out of each Desian. Fred then realized that the beams of light were coming from energy sword. After the Desians fell to the ground dead, an Elite that was using two energy swords suddenly uncloaked itself making it visible to the sniper. "You're late!" Fred said while quickly getting all the equipment.

"Many apologizes… your Major was worried after losing connection with you."

"Lost connection? My radio didn't…" Fred then looked over at his radio finding in blown into millions of pieces. "Ok, maybe a few shotgun pellets destroyed it, but this will not solve what's going to happen outside!" without warning a barrage of bullets tore through the wall and window where Fred once leaned against.

The two hit the floor as the bullets almost hit their heads. Fred crawled over to where his sniper rifle was and picked it up. After the bullets of death stopped, there was a second of silence. It then gave the two the idea that the Desians must be reloading their weapons. The sniper and the Elite jumped to their feet in a hurry, picked up the rocket launcher and its ammo, and ran the hell out of the room before a second barrage of bullets and a huge explosion that completely destroyed the wall get to them.

They then dashed down the stairs to the ground floor of the garage and ran out the garage's front door, which would be the gigantic garage door. Bullets whizzed past them as they dove for nearby cover while taking fire from BRs, SMGs, any kind of UNSC weapon that the Desians stole when they and some other soldiers that had that some how boarded the UNSC ships assaulted the fleet and any UNSC soldiers on the surface. In a prone position, Fred aimed with his sniper rifle and began returning fire. After firing four powerful bullets, he then reloaded his gun. He repeated the pattern about more five times for ten minutes till he was out of ammo for his sniper rifle. The sniper then yelled out, "MAJOR!! MAJOR WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!?! HELP ME OUT!!"

A bullet then brushed against his left cheek giving him a small cut. "THAT'S IT!!! I'M FUCKING PISSED!!" he then took out the rocket launcher, got up to his feet, and was shocked at the appearance of the two tanks. He revealed a pissed off look on his face. "YOU WANT SOME?! OK!!" he then took aim with the rocket launcher, then grind, "SAY HELLO TO MY FUCKING FRIEND!!"

The moment his giant weapon of death locked onto one of the tanks, he released two rockets hitting the same tank he aimed at first. The tank exploded sending shrapnel to any Desians that was standing near it. In the middle of reloading the rocket launcher, the Scorpion tank that was left fired its large cannon, which flew past Fred and caused a greater explosion behind him sending him flying forward. He landed flat on his belly hearing a high-pitched ringing in his ear. He got to his feet while stumbling in the process.

The sniper looked around finding his rocket launcher directly in front of him on the ground like a shinny penny that wants to attract some attention. He moved quickly after a bullet raced by his head again and picked up the weapon. He then made sure it still worked and ran back to cover to finish reloading.

The Desian controlled tank slowly rolled like a snail towards him while firing its big machine gun barrel blazing bullets like crazy. Fred pressed his back against the cover he was using. At this rate he won't be able to get a shot to destroy the tank. His eyes gazed around looking for his Elite friend. He then spotted him. The alien was on the ground behind a pile of rubble with one busted leg.

The Elite glared back at him for ten seconds. He then gave Fred a nod, made his way to his feet, turned on his energy swords, and jumped out of cover letting out his war cry. Suddenly the bullets trailed from him to the Elite easily taking down his shields and tore through his flesh. Purple blood flew everywhere. Fred then realized something. The Elite sacrificed himself so that he could take the shot.

He had to take it out now or never. He leaned out of his cover. Before the tank could go back to shooting at him, he unleashed two rocket at the tank blowing it up. He then stood there looking the wreckage as he dropped his rocket launcher. While gazing at the wreckage, he didn't notice that the surviving Desians were in full retreat after the loss of their tanks.

His head looked up at the late night sky as UNSC marines, Grunts, and Elites approached him from behind and from his right. "One fucking day…" he said while off in the distance two Pelican Drop ships that were being escorted by a few Long Sword fighters, flew towards him and the rest of the group.

Back in Tethe'alla…

"Gosh I feel hungry…" Genis whispered to himself as he rose out of his bed after the beam of morning sunlight hit him. He was about to ask his big sister, but remembered about her cooking skills, "I wonder if Max is awake."

He quietly jumped out of bed, walked out of the room, and traveled down the halls to Max's room. He knocked once he got there, no response. He slightly opened the door and peered into the room seeing no one in bed, shattered glass on the floor by the window, and a puddle of water. "Where did he and Sheena go?"

He then traveled down stairs and the first room he went onto was the living room. Upon entering he saw s someone sleeping on the floor, who ever it was, they were cover with a blanket. Genis walked closer finding Max was the one was sleeping on the floor, "Max wake up…" Genis said like a twelve year old, although he was a twelve year old. He then tapped Max in the back with his foot.

Max then rolled over accidentally knocking Genis over. He then sat up after hearing the "thump" sound of the young boy.

"What the?" Max said after finding Genis sprawled out on the floor next to him. "Genis?"

"Hey Max," Genis also sat up while rubbing his head, "I was kind of hungry and was wondering if you were going to make breakfast this morning?"

"Breakfast?" Max looked over at a clock looking at the time, "It's 7:03 am… I guess I can make breakfast for everyone." He then looked around the living room noticing something, "Where did Sheena go?"

"Sheena was here also?"

"Yeah, she said that she was really cold last night from trying to sleep on the sofa I offered here to sleep next to me if she wanted to." Genis then stared at him for few seconds. "What?"

"Oh, nothing. I never really thought you would offer Sheena to sleep next to you…"

"Hey she was cold and I was warm. So all I could is offer some of my heat for her."

"What did she say?"

"No… why are we even on the topic anyway? I should be making breakfast." Max then got up and walked into the kitchen with Genis following behind him. He then looked at the ingredients and gave the moment of thinking.

"What are you going to make?" Genis asked curiously.

"How about scramble eggs and French toast? I think that will sound good." Max began to make the food. While he was scrambling the eggs, Genis asked a question.

"Max how did you get so good at cooking?"

"When I was in school I would take after school classes. So I chose a cooking class. When I went to collage I volunteered to work in the cafeteria and did the same thing when I join the UNSC."

"Is that it?"

"Yep." Max then place some of the French toast onto the frying pan. A few seconds, later there two sounds of thumps coming from up stares. The sound of footsteps rushed around and fated till it was quiet. Suddenly the sound got louder as something or someone tumbled down the stairs and ended with a crash. Max and Genis left the kitchen and walked over to the bottom of the stairway finding Zelos sprawled out on the floor.

He said over and over again, "food… food..."

Out of nowhere Lloyd came rushing down the stairs, dashed right past Max and Genis, and into the kitchen, "AAHHH!! It's burning!!"

"OH CRAP!!!" Max then ran into kitchen with Genis right behind him. The moment he entered, he saw Lloyd freaking out and the toast was burning. Max then quickly removed the toast and replaced them with some other ones. "Jeeze… now that's taken care of, can you two get Zelos together and go set up the table?"

"Sure thing." Genis and Lloyd left the kitchen for Max to focus on making breakfast.

"And don't forget about Zelos."

While the medic was working on the meal, he heard a door shut behind him. He made sure nothing was on the frying pan and turned towards to see who entered. Surprisingly it was Sheena. She walked in all wet letting out a sigh. "What's up Sheena?"

"Huh?" She then spotted Max over by wood stove cooking, "Ah just went to the Laboratory to see how the EC was doing and see if would be finished today, but they were slowed down when some of the Meltokio's city guards came in and asked them a few questions about us in the city. So we might be here for a little while long… and it's still rain, lightly though."

"It's quite obvious, and the reason we're going to be here longer is because of me last night that might have the guards on their toes about catching us?"

"Most likely, and it's not just us. They're also after you, Genis, Raine Colette, and Zelos."

"Because I'm a Mana Carrier, Genis and Raine are Half-Elves, and Zelos and Colette are Chosen's of salvation, right?"

"Yes…"

Max then let out a sigh, "go get dried up and once everyone's awake tell them the news about the EC… and what is an EC?"


	31. Tales of Halo CH 37

CH. 37

A Past Never Forgotten

Part 1

It was almost midday in the City of Meltokio. Shego stood out in the back yard of Zelos' mansion looking at his garden of flowers. He quietly thought about a lot of things that have happened. His alien eyes jumped from flower to flower lost in its interesting colors. Then he stopped when they landed on a crimson colored one. He stared at it for several minutes till something happened.

Suddenly images of a little girl covered in blood flashed through his mind once, which made him bring his hand up to his head as he shook it. The image flashed again, this time it caused him to take out and turn on his energy sword, and swung it at the crimson flower cutting it off its stem. He then put his weapon away and looked up at the sky.

He noticed that it seemed very calm, nothing to disturb it. When he was on earth the sky was filled with smog. On Halo what was above him felt like a safe place, but down on the ground was like a nightmare that he had to fight through. But here, it felt less dangerous with the less amount of combat that he and the others encounter. But, what was this feeling that was coming over him?

Shego then gazed down at the flower that he cut and saw current events run through his mind like a 19th century film.

Flash Back…

Shego and a group of twelve Jackals, right behind him, ran quickly from block to block of the human city on earth. They stopped at each corner and gazed around at the environment around them. He then commanded two of the Jackals to dash across one of the long streets.

The two did what they were told and began making their way to the other side. Before they could get to where they needed to be, a bullet from a human sniper rifle killed one of the jackals straight in the head completely blowing off its head. "You two!" Shego barked as he pointed to two other Jackals with Covenant sniper rifles, "Do whatever means necessary to kill that human!"

One of the jackals was freaking out and didn't want to do what he was told, but the other was actually brave enough to go and get a shot. So the jackal went inside the building that was nearby to have a little sniper war with the human sniper. Minutes later the jackal came back confirming that the human was killed with one shot.

Nodding his head, Shego then commanded the jackals to go meet up with a group of Grunts and Buggers nearby. The jackals did so and ran off to the location leaving him alone to do his own work.

He gazed around the area again and moved on in a different direction. Quickly running along the street, he entered an empty building and exited it through the back door. Shego then ran into another building. When he was about half way through it, he thought, 'This seems much quicker then going around.'

CLANK!

The Elite stopped in his tracks and looked down at his feet. He noticed that his left foot has stepped on some kind of invisible wire. His eyes followed the wire saw that it led to a mine, a trip mine.

There was a loud explosion that filled the room. After the explosion was over, there was nothing left. Three UNSC marines came out from the next room and gazed around.

"Did we get 'em?" a marine spoke as he went to a corner of the room spotting something blue and shiny. "What's this?"

The two other marines turned to him seeing that he was about to pick up the object, "DON'T TOUCH…!"

Too late, the marine picked it up and held it in his hand, to everyone's surprise he was holding a Plasma grenade, "Take it easy it's just a…" without warning the grenade lit up. The marine looked at it and noticed that this wasn't good. He tried to toss it out of the room, but since he held it in his hand for second after it turned on, the grenade was already stuck; "SHIT I CAN'T GET IT OFF!" after those final word the plasma grenade exploded blowing up the top half's of the marine's body.

After watching the human fall for the trap, Shego decided to reveal himself from the rubble and charge at the marines that were off guard. He wielded his energy sword decapitating a marine. Then he charged at the other marine driving his weapon into his gut.

After the Elite confirmed the human dead, he removed the weapon from the marine's cold dead body. He watched the corpse fall to the floor like a piece of paper that just fell down to earth. As soon as Shego turned to leave, he heard a sound. It sounded like another human was nearby.

Shego wandered room-by-room following the sound that led him to the kitchen. Once he entered the small room, the sound stopped. Suddenly a mouse ran past his feet. 'So that's what it was.' he turned to leave, but before he took the first step he heard a different sound that came from one of the lower cupboard. This time it sounded like metal clanging.

When he laid his eyes on a cupboard, he noticed that it was open a crack. After staring at it for a few seconds, the cupboard door shut quickly by itself. He approached it curiously and opened it. His eyes then laid on something that brought a strange feeling over him, a feeling that he doesn't quite know.

End of Flashback…

"Hey Shego what are you doing out here?" Shego turned around to find Genis walking up to him.

"Nothing interesting, just staring at these flowers."

Genis looked up at Shego a little curious of what he was thinking, but he decided not to ask now, "Well, I was kind a looking for ya, Zelos wanted to us all to do something to make the time go by faster."

"What is it that he wanted to show us?"

Meanwhile

"Here we are!" Zelos announced as Max, Lloyd, Colette and Raine stood behind him looking at what they saw in front of them. It looked like a basement.

"Hm, looks like a dojo or… sparring room or something that's under your mansion." Max spoke as his eyes gazed around the room and spotted a bunch of different kinds of wooden weapon leaning against the wall. "This is a sparring room, right?"

"Yep! And I was thinking that we should have ourselves a little tournament! And who ever wins will have their wish come true!"

"How so Zelos?"

"Everyone puts their wish on a piece of paper, and if they win the tournament then their wish actually happens."

"I see…"

"I got Shego everyone!" Max and Lloyd turned to find Genis coming down the steps with Shego right behind him.

"That's great! All we need now is Presea and Sheena and we're set." Zelos then wrote his wish on a piece of paper and placed on a small nearby table. "Who wants to go get them?"

"I'll go!" Colette said as she ran up the steps. After missing a step she tripped and came tumbling down making a huge crash, "Heh heh… sorry…" She got up and ran back the stairs again making sure she didn't miss another step.

"Ok then how about we go ahead and start the first round!" Zelos said when he turned to the others who were already writing down the one reward that they want after they won. They then place the papers on the table that Zelos put his on. "Ok so is everyone ready?"

"It's always great to practice every now and then." Lloyd said as he picked up a pair of wooden swords that were next to another pair of wooden swords that had the shape of energy swords. This caught Shego's eyes because it's usually rare to find sparring equipment with that kind of shape. "So who will fight me first?"

Shego walked over to the pair of the wooden swords the shape of energy swords and grabbed them. "I will volunteer to be you first challenger." The Elite walked over to the sparring ring and stood at one end of it.

"Eh, ok." Lloyd also got on the ring and got ready in his fighting stance, "Just don't hold back!"

"We Elites never hold back!" Shego roared as he charged in at Lloyd, but was caught off guard when he did an attack on him.

"Beast!"

Flashback…

Shego flew to the ground after failing to successfully strike the other golden armored Elite in a sparring match. "Come brother, come and hit me with all your might! Don't tell that's all you got!"

"I never give up easily!" Shego rushed back to his feet and charged in again. With both of his energy swords drawn, he knocked away the sword that the other Elite was using for defense, and then rammed him with his shoulder.

The golden armored Elite fell to the ground and looked up finding Shego's energy swords pointed at his neck. "Very good brother Shego, you've finally managed to beat me." Shego lowered his weapons and put them away allowing the other elite to get up. "But I have sensed something disturbing you in your fighting. Mind if I ask what is it? You've been failing to defeat twice as much as before."

"I don't know sir. Ever since we left earth and came here, something's been on my mind, but it's nothing important." Shego said as he and the Elite left the room traveling down the corridors of the Covenant ship. "Sir, I was wondering if I could be on guard duty in the prison blocks."

The high, ranking Elite curiously looked at him as the two entered the bridge. "What motivated you to be on guard duty all of a sudden?"

Shego tried to find the right words to say. "I just need someplace to think for a while without anything to worry about."

After what was heard, the leader then focused his attention to the monitors that were showing the ring planet Halo. Then he turned his head to him. "Alright, you can go there right now and do your thinking there. But if any of the humans there try any attempt of escaping, I want it dead, and you'll minimally punished. Do I make my self clear?"

Shego, without warning, gave a really rare glare to his commander, which was followed by a, "Yes sir." And left.

The Elite watched Shego leave the bridge a bit curious of what he was up to. It's not usual to see an Elite acting like this.

As Shego walked through the corridors be himself, he walked by a group of Brutes that were chatting loudly and nonstop. Then the group turned and looked at him with threatening glares for no reason. Shego kept looking straight making no eye contact with any them.

He walked into the brig and looked around. Only one small Grunt was the only guard. He approached the Grunt about what he was going to tell him, "Your jobs done here, I'll take over." The Grunt was going to complain about the job that he was assigned too and didn't want to give it up to an Elite, so Shego sent some death threatening glares at the small alien making him freak out and run out of the room.

Shego was now alone in the brig. He then went over to a small control panel making sure that the doors were locked. He then went over to one of the cells and gazed into it. On the ground of the cell, was a female human and it's daughter. Both non-combatants, and he found them hiding in a cupboard on earth.

End of Flashback…

Lloyd went flying to the ground all dizzy and with swirls in his eyes. Raine examined him and confirmed the match was over and Shego was the winner. "Congratulations Shego, you win."

"Why is Raine the referee? Why doesn't Max take that job?" Genis asked as he and Lloyd looked over at Max.

"Guys, do I really look like a Zebra to you?" Max asked in an ignored way.

Colette finally came back with Sheena and Presea. "I heard that there was some sort of tournament going on down here. Is that right?" Sheena questioned.

Zelos turned quick towards Sheena with his arms open, "Sheena baby! I knew you'd come to watch me win my heart for you!" he then ran at her to hug her, but before he was even less than 2 inches away from her, she gave the chosen of Tethe'alla on hell of a kick to the groin. Zelos then fell to ground with a faint scream like a girl.

"Like you'd ever win me…" Sheena then looked over at the ring to find Genis and Max going head on against each other. "So what kind of tournament was this?"

"Lightning!" Genis yelled casting down a bolt of lightning at Max.

"Crap!" Max dodged to the side avoiding the attack. Then Genis cast the same spell again. So the medic did continuous amounts of dodging left and right.

"Lightning! Lightning! Lightning! Lightning!" Genis yelled over and over again hoping that one of the bolts would hit him, but failed. "Icicle!"

Now this caught Max off guard, instead of rolling away from the attack, he rolled into it. The chunk of ice shot out of the ground making Max fly two yards into the air and landed flat on the ground. "ow…"

Raine then walked into the ring for a bit asking, "Max, can you continue?"

"I'm perfectly fine…" Max responded as he got up to his feet slowly. Once up, he shook his arms and legs trying to shake it out.

'I have to keep him from a good distance…' Genis thought as he got ready to cast some more magic. "Thunder Arrow!" a arrow shaped bolt of electricity shot down from above landing next to Max.

"Oh shi-" before he could finish, electricity erupted all around him. The spell was strong enough to create a lot of dust making things pretty difficult to see anything. It was like trying to look through the darkness of a tunnel. When the dust cleared, the young mage was surprised. Max was still where he was before the dust was created, but he was kneeling down on one knee with his wooden energy sword in the ground in front of him. There were also a few burned marks on his skin, but didn't seem very serious.

"No way…" Genis said. Just then he detected a strong amount of Mana oozing out from him and stopped around him. Then it revealed itself. A bubble made of mana surrounded him just like Lloyd's Guardian, but instead the bubble wasn't green, it was blue. 'That protected him?'

Once the bubble disappeared, Max fell flat on his butt putting up a hand, "Ok, that's it, I give up." This was quite a surrender, and it was unexpected too.

"Why are you giving up?" Genis asked.

"Cause you're continuously casting spell that's keeping me from getting from you. So, might as will surrender if I can't get to you…"

It was confirmed, Genis won the match. Sheena leaned against the wall crossing her arms, "That was a some what of a interesting match…" she said, "and it was quite unexpected to see Max lose to Genis."

"I do have to hand it to him, that bubble trick was really interesting." Zelos said, "but our little fight will be more interesting." Fe finished as he lightly elbowed Sheena in the arm.

"That's stupid, what makes you so sure that I'm going to fight you?"

"See those wishes on the table?" The perverted chosen pointed to the small pile of papers on the nearby table. "If I win, you knows what will happen."

'Oh no… this game again?' Sheena thought, "Oh hell no, you're on!" Sheena then marched out into the ring immediately getting into a fighting stance.

"I'm coming my hunny!" Zelos also jumped into the ring and the small fight begun.

While off to the side Max took a seat on the ground and let out a small sigh, "man I wasn't expecting you to go almost all out Genis."

"Well I didn't really wanting you in striking distance."

"Smart thinking." Max turned his attention to the battle watching Sheena send one strike after another at Zelos.

"So Max what was your wish?"

"Mine? Well… how would I say it…?"

"Cyclone Seal!"

CRASH!

Both Genis and Max focused back to the small battle missing the part where Zelos went flying up into the ceiling. Now both of his legs were sticking out. The two let out a roar of laughter as Zelos fell back to the ground landing on his back. The look on his face showed that he was in complete K.O.

Zelos' body was dragged out of the ring by Raine annoyingly. "Heh, well the wish was to have Zelos go run around in the streets of Meltokio in some retarded outfit." Max finally answered.

"That does sound funny." Sheena said as she walked towards the two. "So what did you two think of the battle?"

"In short description Sheena, it was short and quick."

"That's what that idiot gets whenever he tries to toy with me."

"You know, it sounds like he always had it coming. Ether by you or someone else that goes postal on him, but most likely you."

"Well someone has to teach him a lesson."

Meanwhile back in Sylvarant…

"Fred! Oh Fred! Wake up!"

Fred cracked open one eye seeing that Haiyamaru was standing next to his bunk. He stared at her for a while before speaking, "You've caught me at a bad moment…"

"Hm? What was that?" Haiyamaru then examined his face, and then looked at the sheets that covered him. she then paused what she was doing, took several steps back, and immediately turned around while blushing a little. "Oh my god you prick! You got a ha-"

"OK!! Ok! Let's talk! It might go away!"

"Can I still look the other way?"

"Of course! Why are you here anyways? Wait a minute, why are you in the men's bunking area anyway?" Fred sat up and looked around seeing that they are the only two in the room, "Well then I guess this isn't a bad time."

"Of course not. I came looking for you. The General wants you on the bridge soon."

"What does he want with me?"

"No idea. He said it was classified information."

"Great… first all hell breaks lose days ago, I get shot and stabbed, I took fire by two tanks which I got pissed at and blew the fack up, and now I'm getting Max's hard work."

"Max got hard work? What kind of jobs did he get?"

"Running around doing the one man army thing."

"Speaking of Max, is he back yet?"

"How the hell would I know? Do you 'miss him'?"

"Shut up you perv." Haiyamaru then grabbed a pillow from another bunk and tossed it at Fred's face. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I saw a familiar face you guys know."

"Who?" Fred asked while holding up the same pillow that hit him using it as a shield.

"It was Bob. You know? The really tall Jamaican guy, that has the home plate record of having friendly fire accidents. You two and I met him in boot camp. Remember?"

Fred brought a hand up to cover half of his face as bad past memories from a long time ago. "Oh man FFB… aka, Friendly Fire Bob…"

"Yep! That's the one."

"I thought he'd be back on earth fighting the Covenant… or against his charges…"

"At lease he has a record of shooting at both Covenant and Marines, but it's a good thing that most of the kills he made were Covenant."

"And I'm surprised that all the UNSC marines that he shot at are still alive… it's unbelievable…"

"Remember in boot camp he accidentally shot a tranquilizer dart at our sarge's ass and he was in recovery bay for a month? And remember that time when we were at the firing range using live ammo?"

"Now how could I forget that one…"

Flash Back…

"Make sure the safety lock is off. Once it's off you can take aim." The Sargeant said as he walked around Bob kind of like a drunk after getting shot in the butt with a dart.

"It's off man." Bob said boringly while tinkering with the barrel of the rocket launcher.

"Good…" 'I have a bad feeling about this guy now…' "Now get in a firing position and shoot at the dummy tank." the sargeant then point over to a remote controlled tank that's used for firing practice for the anti-armor units.

"Whatever you say man." Bob responded in a Jamacain accent and took aim. He stood aiming for a good two minutes. Before he even touched the trigger, a soldier came rushing interrupting the consentration.

"Jo Bob! That shipment of wine you wanted came in you got enough to get a whole platoon drunk."

Bob broke from his stance and gazed over to the other marine, "For real man?" when he turned his head, he aimed the rocket launcher a little up and accidentally fired the rocket. Everyone around him was silent for a few minutes and looking in the direction the rocket went in. "Oh man, man…"

Meanwhile…

Two UNSC marines were sitting at a table play a card game by the window calmly, "dude, got any Ace's?"

"Nope, go fish…"

KA-BOOM!!!

The two marines quickly looked out the window and spotted a warthog that was on fire after it blew up. "DUDE! THAT WAS MY RIDE!!!"

End of Flash Back…

Fred bobbed his head up and down remembering that incident. "Yep… good times…"

Back in Tethe'alla…

"Alright everyone, we've declared a winner of the sparring tournament. Can I have everyone on their feet?" Raine announced seeing that almost everyone was where they were suppose to be in front of her. She then noticed that two others are missing, "Where's Zelos and Lloyd?"

"They still haven't recovered yet." Max said, letting Raine know where the other two were.

"I see." Raine then took in a few breaths, "So, the winner of this Sheena, and the tournament is over."

"We kind a know since I won the last round."

"Yeah, pretty obvious." Genis said. "What was your wish Sheena?"

"It involves Max cooking something for tonight."

Max over heard what was said and could have sworn he heard something that includes him cooking. "What was that I heard about cooking?"


	32. Tales of Halo CH 38

CH. 38

A Past Never Forgotten

Part 2

"Pineapple salad… Pineapple juice… Pineapple fried rice… Pineapple pie… too much… pineapple…" Max muttered as he lade on the sofa of the living room resting after what he prepared for dinner, and the time of day now is night time and everyone is a bit tired. "I miss the good old days when I volunteered to work in the cafeteria of the destroyer "Hawaiian Fighter"."

Flashback…

"I want to know who the hell cooked this food!" a Major demanded as he slammed his plate full of very interesting looking food on the counter near the register. All the marines and officers of the ship that were at the scene put their attention on the man yelling. "This guy has trouble written all over him!"

"You mean private Max? The medic? He's in back doing his magic in the kitchen." The guy at the counter said.

Meanwhile in the kitchen…

"OH NO! THE RICE I WAS MAKING IS ON FIRE! KUSO!!!" Haiyamaru who was in the kitchen also, panicked not knowing what to do.

"PUT IT OUT DAMN IT!" Max yelled while he was busy cooking something for the people in the cafeteria.

"What the hell's going on in here?!"

Haiyamaru turned around noticing that there was major ranking marine behind her. She didn't know what to do. All she could do is get down on her knees and starts bowing in apology. "Major I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to screw up the rice!" she said leaving Max to put out the fire.

After the fire was out, Max turned Haiyamaru and the major, "Geeze, thanks for the help Haiyamaru. Can I help you Major?"

"Are you private Max?"

"Yes I am." Suddenly without warning the major threw a hard punch at Max to the side of the face. Max stumbled back a bit, "What the hell was that for?!"

"Why the hell didn't you tell me that you were a good cook?!"

"Is that why you punched me?! Jeeze!"

End of Flashback…

'Maybe except for that one time.' Max let out a yawn as he closed his eyes.

"Haven't you ate anything yet?" The medic lifted an eyelid spotting Sheena standing over him. "You made all that delicious food and you didn't have any of it for dinner? Are you feeling ok?"

"Yeah, I was kind of thinking about the past when I worked in a cafeteria of a destroyer. And now…" Max got up from the sofa to his feet, "what left me wondering now is how did I do that one spell earlier."

"You're thinking about that?"

"Yep." Max then began to walk towards the door to go to the sparing room, "hey Sheena, do you mind helping me out?"

"Um sure, what do you want me to do?"

Meanwhile in the dinning room, Shego still sat where he was when his food came, but the thing is, he never touched it. He just sat there and stared at it. Nearby was Raine and Genis spying on him from the doorway. "Hey Raine, why is Shego just sitting there?" Genis whispered.

"I don't really know, he's ether thinking about eating Max's cooking or must be sleeping with his eyes open."

"I can hear you and sense you…" Shego suddenly said causing both Genis and Raine to jump a bit.

"And can sense us without turning his head, amazing for an Elite. Maybe I could study more if he volunteered…" the Professor spoke to herself.

'Can't a damn Elite eat alone without distractions?' Shego then picked up the knife and started to stab his meal over and over to see if he could scare the two half-elfs away, but it failed.

Meanwhile later, back down in the sparring room…

"Let's go Corrine!" Sheena commanded summoning Corrine right over Max's head rolled into a ball and then bashed him in the skull. After the impact, the medic lost balance and fell flat to the ground.

Max then sat up rubbing his head where he was hit. He then got to his feet with the wooden sword saying, "Ok, let's go at it again…"

Sheena nodded to him and got ready to do the same tech again. After calling out Corrine's name once more and letting him hit Max in the same place as before two times harder, Max floored to the ground again bashing the side of his head on the surface. The medic sat up again, "ow… damn it…"

"Max I think we should stop this." Sheena said as she walked towards him. "Look at yourself, you're bleeding."

"I am?" Max brought up a hand and felt the side of his head and felt something moist and thick. "Hm, you're right. But it doesn't mean we should stop, it's just a flesh wound." The medic got to his feet wiping away most of the blood.

"Actually, I think it does mean that we're finished here." Sheena then used here hand to pinch Max's ear and slowly led him up stairs, "Besides, you got some blood on your shirt and it looks like you just killed a small animal."

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Hey! Not so hard!" the medic complained while Sheena led the way. When he was dragged up the stairs and through the living room where Lloyd, Colette, Zelos, and Presea were. Somehow, his foot tripped over on the hand of the little Lumber jacker's axe that was somehow laying on the floor. He tumbled forward accidentally crashing into Sheena.

"Are you two ok?" Colette asked worriedly as she glared down at Sheena and Max who were no sprawled out on the floor.

Zelos saw what happened and felt a little jealous of Max hanging around Sheena, but sprung an idea. "Hey Max, how old are you again?"

Once Max got up to his feet, he looked over at Zelos, "I'm twenty-one, why do you ask?"

"I was wondering if me, you, Sheena babe, and the kinky professor would want to go out to best bar I know near her-"

Before Zelos could finish, Sheena gave him a good pound to the head, "Idiot! What about the city guards? Aren't we wanted people?"

"Don't worry about that my hunny. I, Master Zelos Wilder, know almost every route to almost everything!"

"You know," Max began, "after hearing those two "almost", I think that this is a bad idea."

"You're going Max?" Sheena asked.

"Me? Yeah, I need to get out of the house. I can't stand being inside anymore."

The female ninja crossed her arms and sighed, "Fine, but I'm going with you two and make sure that you guys don't do anything stupid."

"Then it's settled!" Zelos then put his arms around both Sheena's and Max's shoulder. "Now, let's see how we're going to get Raine to go…"

Sometime later…

Max, Sheena, and Raine sat at a table in a bar. When they first arrived there, there were very few people getting drinks, they didn't care if they were wanted criminals that just walked in. So everything is going alright. "Where's Zelos with our drinks?" Sheena asked, "I hope that idiot doesn't get me alcohol."

Max then leaned over towards Raine a bit curious, "Hey Raine, how did Zelos get you to go?"

"He told me that I should try the drinks that were made in Tethe'alla." The professor said as she looked through the menu to look at all the variety of drinks.

"That's it? That's what he told you?"

"Yes."

"I'm back my Hunnies!" Zelos suddenly appeared with two giant mugs in each hand filled with who knows what kind of alcohol is in it. "Raine, here's you Syback rum, Sheena, your Mizuho special, Max, here's your Altamera Surfs Up, and me with Tethe'alla's finest booze, Arena Champion." Zelos said as he served everyone at the table.

"What odd names…" Raine then took a sip of her 'Syback rum' and then muttered to herself. "Pretty extraordinary taste too…"

"Raine have you ever had rum before?" Max asked.

"No, but I did come to take a taste of the drinks that I haven't experienced yet."

"That again huh? Don't get smashed on your first time." Max then looked at his drink and noticed that his drink was really blue, so blue that he couldn't see the bottom of his mug. He took a sip then waited for a few seconds before saying anything. "Hm, it does have a interesting taste." The medic continued to drink his 'Altemaras Surfs Up'. His eyes gazed over at Sheena who was just sitting there in her seat, and was just staring at her drink. 'Now that I think of it, Sheena isn't even of age to drink is she?' he thought.

"Hey Sheena babe, are you going to drink that?" Zelos asked as he was about to get up to get another Arena Champion for himself.

"The hell I am!" Sheena then pick up the mug and brought it to her mouth where she began to chug her drink down. Max, Zelos, and Raine stared at her in aw as she drank her Mizuho special to the last drop. She then slammed her mug on the table.

"Damn Sheena baby, did you even taste it?"

"Shut up Zelos." The ninja said as a streak of red appeared on her face showing that she was on the brink of being drunk.

Max looked at her, then he stared down at his drink. In a second he began to chug down his drink before getting out of his seat, "Alright I'm gonna head back."

"So soon Max?" Zelos asked.

Max then looked at Zelos and saw ten empty mugs in front of him, "Zelos, how much did you drink?"

"Enough…"

"Ok then I'll just leave you here and take Sheena and Raine back to the mansion." The medic then glanced over to where Raine was suppose to be but only saw an empty seat, "Where did Raine go?"

"I'm right here." Raine then appeared with two mugs of the same drink and sat down.

"Raine… are you seriously going to drink more?"

"Yes"

"Great…" Max looked at Sheena and saw that she had her head on the table ether tired or she just got smashed really easily. "Then I'll just be taking Sheena back then." The medic then tried to help the ninja to her feet but found this a difficult task, "Come on, let's get you back on you feet."

Sheena then gazed up at him with weak eyes and let out a small burp in front of his face, "Sowy, pldease excuse my baid habitz." She spoke drunkenly.

'Jesus! She is smashed on one go! And her breath smells like… like… like my granddad's basement? That's odd…' the medic then place one of her arms around his neck and tried to lead her out of the bar. When the two finally were out in the quiet, night streets of Meltokio, Sheena would not stop giggling, laughing, and swinging her free arm around like an orangutan.

"Heh heh heh… hey Max, remember that time when we both fell down that hole at Ossa Trail? You want to know how I got myself dangling from that root?" Max gave out a sigh in response, and then was suddenly caught off guard as the drunk ninja knocked lightly on his forehead. "Come on… that's not what I want to hear." She said teasing him.

"Sheena you can't even hold your alcohol and now your bring things up about the past?"

"Come on… tell me how I go there…" Sheena let out another burp after lightly poking him in the rib causing him to jump a bit.

"Ok, how did you get up there?"

Sheena leaned in a bit to his ear and whispered into it, "My sleeve got caught." There was a moment of silence before Sheena began pouring out laughing.

'I didn't find that too funny.' Max thought.

"You know Max, you remind my off someone else… like I've seen that face before years ago…"

Now this caused Max to stop in his tracks and look at her. "What does my face look like to you?"

"It looks like this!" the smashed ninja tried to imitate his face, but made her look like a cross of an elephant and as ant when she took a deep breath. "Some weird old guy made faces to me all the time to keep me happy!"

"My face does not look like that."

When they arrived back at the mansion and before they could make it to the front door, Sheena suddenly tackled Max onto the grass and jump on top of him. With her hands, she clutched Max's shirt and began to shake him wildly, "Your face does too! Except you don't have a weird beard."

"Sheena! Stop!" Max begged as the world around him from his eyesight was spinning around wildly.

"Never!" she then began to rock him around faster. After a minute or two later till Max suddenly had swirls of dizziness in his eyes, Sheena brought her head to his.

"What are you…" before the medic could finish, his lips were blocked off by hers. Max's eyes widened when he figured out what she was doing. She was kissing him. When it felt like they shared this moment for a minute, Sheena backed her head away and then fell asleep on top of Max wrapping her arms around his head. "What the fuck just happened?" the medic muttered in shock.

Meanwhile in Sylvarant…

"Ah, Lieutenant Fred, You're here a bit early." General Hoth spoke while he looked at a computer screen show a map of Sylvarant.

"Is it ok if I am?" Fred said as he did his salute.

"It's ok, you're probably wondering why I asked you to come to see me."

"Is it a mission that Max use to do?"

"No, it's not a mission of what Demore does daily, but a mission to search for him."

"A search and rescue mission?" Fred asked.

"Yes, look here." The general then pointed to the map of Sylvarant where the Tower of Salvation is. "This is where the device in his ODST armor show where he was on the day the Desians attacked." And then pointed to the Desian base in the Triet Desert. "And then it showed him jump all the way over here, the next morning we lost his location within the base, like as if his armor shut down."

"I'm not going to do this mission alone am I?"

"No, you're going to put a team together and go in. Before I forget, if you don't find Demore there, then your secondary objective would be to capture the enemy base. This mission will begin once the briefing is over. Go down to the surface whenever you want."

"Starting a mission like that? It's quite sudden don't you think?"

"I know and guess what, the briefing's over. Now move out and get your team together."

"Yes sir!" Fred gave another salute and walked quickly out of the bridge. He walked down the corridor to the armor happen to find Haiyamaru along the way.

"Hiya Fred, what's up?" She asked.

"Haiyamaru, are you up for a search and rescue mission?" Fred said as he continued walking.

Haiyamaru walked beside him a bit curious on what was up, "Sure, what and who are we rescuing?"

"We're going to Max's last known position, the location on where he disappeared a day after the huge Desian attack."

"A Max Demore rescue mission?" Haiyamaru then took a moment to think. The only things that came up in her mind were a bunch of exciting events that might happen after the mission. "Oh hell ya, count me in!"

"Meet me and some of the other marines I'll be asking in the hanger tomorrow morning, now go get your stuff."

"Sure thing!"

The Very Next Morning in Tethe'alla…

"Sheena! Sheena wake up!" Genis said as he stood by her bed watching her role over.

"Genis not so loud, I have a terrible headache, just let me sleep for a bit longer." Sheena then pulled more of her sheets over her and then realized, how did she get in bed? She then sat up and looked around, she was back in her bedroom.

"It's important though, we got a message and a package from the lab where your friends work."

Sheena immediately got out of bed as she rubbed her head after feeling a shock of her morning hangover, "Ouch, how much did I drink last night? What did I do last night?" she then tought really hard, "I have a feeling that it was Zelos who wanted this to happen… I'm gonna kill that idiot."

"Um, Sheena? What about the EC?"

Meanwhile Downstairs…

Lloyd, Shego, Raine, Presea, and Colette all peered into a small box looking at these small blue capsules wondering what they are. Nearby sitting on the sofa, Max was reading a letter that came along with the box, he then let out a sigh after reading it for the third time, "Well everyone, we're going to have to go back to the bridge and meet that guy there."

Everyone that surrounded the small box nodded without taking their eyes off the Wing Packs before them, "Hey Max, what did that last part say about what these things really do?"

The medic looked up several lines of the letter to find the part he was searching for, "It says that these Wing Pack things can carry the EC." Max then looked up to everyone else, "Judging what I'm seeing I think they're screwing with us."

"Yeah, it looks like it could house an ant." Everyone bobbed their heads again in agreement.

"Um, can you all stop huddling around the Wing Packs and get ready to move out?" Max got up and closed the box to have them stop staring, "Everyone please! Focus on getting ready."

"But Max, how do we know that it works?" Lloyd spoke causing Max to take out a Wing Pack from the small box and tossed it to the swordsman.

"Hey, even I don't know how it works, but you can have the honors of using it first."

Colette turned after hearing sounds of someone coming down the stairs. She then saw Sheena and Genis coming towards them, and Sheena had a little scary look on her face. With her eyes nearly open, and somewhat bad bed head, made her look almost a witch. "Good morning Sheena!" the Chosen cheered.

"Not so loud Colette…" Sheena spoke as she rubbed her head over and over again. "Gosh, how much did I drink last night?"

"One go. You were so drunk that it was kind hard to control you." Max said as he took out his ODST armor and began putting on the boots. "I mean, you were so drunk I had to help put you in a recovery position."

Flashback of last night…

"Oh… Max… I don't feel so good…" Sheena moaned as Max helped guide her to her room but stopped half way. "I think I need another kiss…"

"Do you feel like hurling?" Max asked watching Sheena nodded in a yes. "Lets get you to the bathroom then."

When the two were finally in the bathroom, Max gently lied Sheena on the ground next to the toilet. As he tried to make sure the female ninja's arms were bent, she spoke, "Ooo… this place seems better then the bedroom." The ninja tried to wrap her arms around the medic's neck again, but he tried to resist.

"Damn it, no, Sheena! What are you…?" before he could finish asking, he felt a bunch of warm liquid stuff that just came out of Sheena's mouth hit his face. "…………………………………… You didn't…"

End of Flashback…

"Did I do anything else beside throw up?" Sheena asked.

"Don't you remember a thing?" Sheena took a small moment to think before saying no. 'Maybe I shouldn't tell her about her kissing me… I would be better off not knowing her really, really pissed off side.'

"MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION EVERYONE!!" everyone in the room focused their gaze to one part of the room to find Zelos walking in rubbing his head, "YOUR CHOSEN OF TETHE'ALLA , ZELOS, NOW HAS A HANGOVER! I REQUIRE ALL MY SEXY HUNNIES TO HELP ME RECOVER!"

Both Raine and Sheena stared at him taking out their weapons, "Don't worry, we'll take good care of you… now hold still…" the ninja said as she gave Zelos the first blow to the head with her spell cards.

An hour later at the Bridge of Tethe'alla…

The warthog rested at near the gate where the Chosen's group went except for Max and Zelos who were waiting for the others to get back. "Ow… I can't feel my legs…" Zelos complained as he lied in the back of the warthog. "Hey Doc, be a man and get some ice." He commanded.

Max sat in the driver seat having his head lean against the steering wheel waiting patiently for the others to return, but he also has the urge to knock Zelos into coma for all and eternity. "Come on Zelos, bare with it and stop your whining before I shoot your foot off."

"If you do that, then I'll tell Sheena what happened last night." Zelos said with a smirk.

Max then sat up in his seat and looked into the rearview mirror seeing Zelos' smile, "What was that last bit."

"You know, the part where she jumped on you on my front lawn and gave you a kiss to the lips."

The medic got up and stood on the car seat gazing down at Zelos with wide eyes, "YOU SAW THAT!?!?"

"Yep, you bet I did, and I don't think Sheena will be too happy if I told her about you two smooching while she was drunk."

"But I thought you were still back at the bar drunk!"

"That's what I made you think, I just place out many empty mugs pretending to be drunk. After you left I followed and hid behind you guys watching you. Like I was saying, if I told Sheena, then she'll go all postal on you"

"Might go same for you, she might think that your lying and might end up knocking your block head off."

Max then looked up at the sky trying to imagine what would happen if Sheena was tolled of what happened last night between them. Almost the same with Zelos, he also thought what would happen if he tolled Sheena if Max didn't tell her yet.

What might happen from Max's mind with terrible stick figure animation if he told Sheena…

"Hey Sheena, that night when you were drunk, you jumped on me on Zelos' lawn and kissed me like the sexy beast you are now." The Max stick figure said the Sheena stick figure. The next thing you know it is the Sheena stick figure started choking the Max stick figure with a strong grip that the head of that belonged to Max pops off

End of thought…

What might happen from Zelos' mind with terrible stick figure animation if he told Sheena…

"Hey Sheena, on the night when we went to the bar. Max walked you back to my place and you jump on him and started kissing him like crazy. You were like a one hell of a sexy animal to him." the Zelos stick figure said to the Sheena stick figure.

"You lying pervert!" The Sheena stick figure would then knock Zelos' head off with a one ton sledge hammer.

End of thought…

Both Max and Zelos then looked at each other before saying the same thing. "You tell her…" they said at the same time.

A.N. well fanfic readers, I'm finally out of school… amazing… it felt like two years. All home works is delt with, Tests and quizzes are out of the way, and I'm going to start my Japanese language class on 6-18-07, I believe. I'm tired, and I need to relax. Luckily I'll be able to write more chapters for my fan fics I've been working on. I guess it's that time of year again where work can actually get done.

I might know a little of what you might be thinking about this chapter, why did Sheena kiss Max while she was drunk? Well, it builds up secrecy and humor for Max and Sheena.

All I can say is that the characters are finally moving out and I can raise the level of action to the Tales of Halo again. It's been a years since I posted this story. Not matter how long it will take me, I will work on it to the end.


	33. Tales of Halo CH 39

CH. 39

Keep Moving

"Alright everyone, find a seat and get ready before Undine gets the EC to surf." Raine announced as she sat nervously in front of the control panel of the small cargo ship. Everyone did as she said and found someplace to sit. Zelos found the most uncomfortable spot since everybody else took all the good seats were taken.

Max was the only one not in his seat. He walked to the back of the boat inspecting anything that might prove to be a suspicious. But found nothing. "Hey Max! Are you back there?" The medic heard Lloyd calling.

"Yeah." The moment Max spoke, the EC began to move without warning to him, and he lost balanced and fell back onto the metal surface of the boat. "Hey! Warn me next time!"

"Sorry!" Raine yelled back to him from the front of the small vessel. "I'm just toying with the controls a bit…?" she then panicked a bit when the water rocked the bout a bit, "Water… everywhere…" She muttered, "How do I move?!"

"WE'RE ALREADY MOVING!!"

Lloyd, Genis, and Sheena plugged their ears from all the commotion. "Human Raine…" Shego began, "Watch for the waves…" suddenly the EC began rock around after going over a few big waves before getting out into calm waters. When the small ship rocked, more thumping noises could be heard from the back followed by someone yelling.

"FUCK! I HIT MY HEAD AGAINST THE METAL WALL SO HARD I'M LITERALLY BLEEDING!"

Back in Sylvarant…

A pelican drop ship was now flying east over the Triet dessert towards the Renegade base, which was Max's last known location. Fred was the only one out of his seat looking out the rear of the ship. Behind him sitting in the seats were Haiyamaru, Friendly Fire Bob, and five other random Marines that the sniper picked.

Haiyamaru would take a few glances over at Bob seeing him hold his rocket launcher at an angle at the floor of the ship, worried that he doesn't pull the trigger. But what made her even more freaking nervous was that he was sitting right next to her. Bob would then find her staring at him and made eye contact, "Why are you staring at me man?"

"Bobu-san, if you somehow magically pull that trigger, I'm not going to forgive you…" Haiyamaru said with a straight face.

"Is it because of that incident a several days ago when those Desians attacked the small outpost at Luin, I accidentally drop my big gun and it fired on it's own and it blew up our only route which was a bridge to escape the place by foot?"

"Hai… matte… nani o shimashita ka?!"

"English man… you need to speak in English to me man."

"Ok, were at the drop off point. Now shut the hell up!" The Pilots said, "Find our man and bring him home. I'll pick you guys up at the Triet village."

"Roger." Fred then waved his fellow UNSC marines to pile out. As soon as the other Marines were out of the ship, Fred then looked around the area. "Our destination is a click west of our position. We'll walk the rest of the way."

Haiyamaru the sighed really deeply before looking at Fred with anger, "Fred you baka! Shouldn't you have requested that we use a warthog?!"

"Then why don't you put in the request and see what command says. I already know what they're going to say so don't bother asking." Fred then walked up one of the sandy dunes and looked over the distance, "Come on folks, and let's get moving before Christmas."

"Really man?" Bob asked as he swung his rocket launcher over his shoulder, "I thought Christmas didn't come around summer, know what I mean man?"

"No, what I'm saying is SHUT UP BOB!" a few minutes later, before they could even get up the first dune, thing's just turned to the unexpected.

A few hours later, back in Tethe'alla…

"LAND!" Raine yelled as she flung herself to the ground with tears of joy after docking the EC. Lloyd and the others stood behind her a few yards away just watching her.

"You know, the trip over the sea would have gone a lot better if Raine didn't flip out and hit the reverse button and backed up hitting the Grand Tethe'alla Bridge." The red swordsman said.

Max let out a sigh, "Tell me about it, I think I twisted my ankle on that one…"

Suddenly, Sheena then pinched his cheek just randomly and had a serious look on her face, "The next time we travel by boat, you're sitting."

"I get it…! Did you just pinch my cheek like I was some kind of baby?" Max asked having to have Sheena let go of him and in a blink of an eye, the medic ended up laying flat face down on the ground in one of Sheena's arm locks.

"Don't get any funny ideas!" she yelled.

"Why the hell would I want any of those ideas? And you're quite serious at this hour of the day I guess." Max said as he just did nothing about the arm lock he was in.

"Sheena, let go of him, we need him to get us to Syback now." Sheena then looked at Genis and let go of Max.

Colette just suddenly laughed a little at the scene, "What Max and Sheena were doing looked like fun."

Quickly, Max got to his feet and yelled, "IT'S NOT FUN FOR ME!" He then calmed down and reached into one of the many pockets of his ODST armor and took out his Wing pack. He stared at hit mumbling, "I still can't believe it would be able to get in this thing…"

Flashback…

"Max, Zelos, what are you two sitting in the Warthog socializing about?" A few seconds later after Max and Zelos had their little conversation about the scene of Max and Sheena last night, and what do you know? Speak of the devil. Sheena just came in.

The Tethe'alla chosen and the Medic looked in a random direction both saying the same thing, "Nothing…"

Sheena looked at each of them silently a bit curious of why the two would be talking to each other, "Ok…don't you guys want to come take a look at the EC? And plus we have to go."

Max shook his head like as if he's disagreeing with something, "I can't leave the Warthog here. If I let someone confiscate it, then the only way of getting anywhere quickly will be gone."

"Then why don't you use your Wing pack?"

Max the took out his Wing pack and looked at it and then looked at her, "Sheena, have you gone crazy? How the hell could I get this one-ton jeep, into a small, few ounce capsule? It's impossible."

"Get out of your vehicle and I'll show you…" Max did as she said and held up a hand signing him to give her his Wing pack. He did so and stepped back to watch what was going to happen. "Now watch closely…" Sheena then held up the small capsule and in a split second, the Warthog shrunk down to a size of an ant and directly zipped into the Wing pack.

The medic stood there silently at what he saw, he didn't even know that his head slowly tilted to the side. "What………………THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!"

"That was the ability of your Wing pack." Sheena said Handing Max his vehicle-carrying capsule. She then remembered that Zelos was also with the medic and looked around the area. "Say, wasn't Zelos also here? Where is he?"

"The last time I saw him was still in the Warthog… 'IN' the passenger seat." Max and Sheena then stood where they were staring at each other realizing what the Mizuho ninja has done.

"Well…fuck…" Sheena sudden said somehow not surprise by any of this.

"Oh… so now you decide to speak my language!"

Meanwhile…

Zelos still sat where he was in the Warthog, in the back. He glanced around seeing nothing but the vehicle and a white background. He let out a low whistle, "So this is what the inside of a Wing pack looks like… awesome…"

End of Flashback…

Max then called out his Warthog from the small capsule. The Vehicle popped out and went back to it original size. "Damn… I could carry a destroyer in this thing…"

"It can only carry things from the size of that… ATV… if that's what it's called, to that huge drop ship." Sheena said.

"Well, screw the destroyer, I would never operate it by myself anyways…" Max then climbed into the driver seat while everyone else climbed into the back. He then started the engine and looked into the rearview mirror, "Where will it be you guys?"

"Syback, double time." Lloyd responded.

"It feels like my first time in the Warthog. This is going to be fun!" Colette cheered by clapping her hands.

"It feels great to be back on land again." The professor said as she opened up the small hidden trunk below in the Warthog gazing at all the different weapons that were there.

Back in Sylvarant…

(Author's note to the readers: if you remember CH 34 when the two UNSC personnel picked something up on radar, well now, guess who came along!)

General Hoth stood in the hanger with a crowed of marines armed with shotguns, assault rifles, BRs, and SMGs. "I don't want anything to go down bad, so stay on your best behavior!" General Hoth said making sure that his men understood.

"Yes sir!" the marines yelled at once.

A UNSC personnel officer and a Grunt came into the hanger and up to the General in a hurry, "They're coming! They're coming!" the Grunt yelled in excitement.

At that exact moment, outside the huge window of the hanger in space, two Covenant Battle cruisers flew by the Orbital Mac station. One of the cruisers seemed badly damaged. "Who would have known that what was picked up on radar a few days ago was Covenant friendlies." Hoth said to himself.

"Sir, here they come." A marine said mentioning a Phantom approaching the hanger.

The hanger door opened allowing the ship to fly in. As soon it was in and the hanger door closed behind it. The back end of the ship then became ajar. About three Elites, and a dozen Grunts depart from their aircraft. One of the Elite that had silver color armor and bigger head armor, came forth to the General. Hoth and the Elite traded glances for a moment before the high-ranking Elite bowed, "Fellow Human allies," the Elite began, "we are lucky to have found you."

"You must be kidding… we've had no luck at all ever since we got here. Please follow me to the bridge. I have much to ask." Hoth said wanting the Elites to follow.

"So do we." One of the Elites answered back as the UNSC General led the way.

A quarter of an hour later when they got to the bridge, lots of UNSC personnel glanced and welcomed the Elites like they were greeting their friends that just arrived at a party. But Hoth wasn't in a good mood to announce to the personnel, "All UNSC personnel on the bridge go on lunch break. Me and our friends here have much to discuss."

The personnel took the order and left the bridge. Once the last UNSC personnel was out of the bridge, the General pointed to a table in the center of the room signaling the Elites to gather there. "Now that we have a place to talk, I would like to be the first to ask the questions."

"Go ahead human General…" An Elite said.

Hoth took in a deep breath, "What has been happening back on Earth?"

The Elites looked at one another till one of them responded, "Your human soldiers and our New Covenant forces have been trying to hold off the Old Covenant, and our enemy is starting slowly to Glass your planet Earth."

"What?! When have they began-"

"They started Glassing four days ago. Judging from the time since we left to come look for you, they could have already Glassed ten percent by now."

"My god…" Hoth muttered at the info that he just heard.

"Now I have a question." Another Elite that decided to speak. "We've received information that almost an eighth of your fleet have came to this world and we were sent to find you. Why is there only this Earth Station and one of your human frigates only ones here?"

"A few days ago in this world we had to fight an army from hell."

There was then silence that rained over the room, and Elite then walked over to the door, "Shall we go back to Earth now? There is still a war to be fought…"

"Please wait a moment…" Hoth interrupted, "I have a team of Marines down on the Sylvarant's surface doing a mission. We must wait for them to return." Just then, an UNSC personnel came rushing into the room.

"Sir! I just received a word that we've lost contact and traces from our team that went down to the surface. We don't know where they are! It's most likely their dead." The room fell into total silence again.

"My god…" Hoth said again. "Alright… alright… I don't want any more of my men dieing. We're going back to Earth, starting tomorrow morning."

Back in Teth'alla…

"Alright we'll be going straight to Sybacks Academy to see if we can get Presea back to normal. What will you two do?" Genis asked Max and Shego who were still currently in the Warthog.

"Me and Shego are going to do a little recon and see if there are anything that might be after us. Like Cruxis, Renegades, and those Papal Knight guys. If we find any and if they're too much for us to handle we'll come straight back here to immediately pick you up."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Zelos said, "Now let's go my hunnies!"

Max then turned his attention back to what him and Shego are going to do. "I swear, I think Zelos is going to be a pimp when this whole saving the world thing is over with."

"Even I don't even know what a pimp is Matz." Shego said.

"You're kidding me… Elites don't even know what pimps are ether? Then why am I sharing this with topic with you?"

(A.N. I haven't done this in a while) Da Da Da! Zelos gained the "Pimp" Title!

"Let's get going." Max then hit the gas and drove off

Thirty minutes later…

"Hey Shego…" Max began as he slowed the Warthog down as they drove up to a field of tall grass.

"What is it human?"

"I'm just going asked to what you think of this situation that we're in. Do you think we might get back to our world? You know, our universe?"

"I'm an Elite Matz, for us Elites we don't care where we are as long as we die Honorably in battle."

Max the hopped out of the vehicle, "I guess my question wasn't all that worth asking." He said as he walked to the back of the vehicle, "Come on, let check out the area." The medic then opened up the hidden trunk that was in the bottom of the Warthog showing all sort of weapons.

When Shego came up next to him, he then asked the same question Max asked him, "What do you think Human? Don't you think we might get back to your home world?"

"I don't know, I hope so though… but…" Max paused as he took out a SMG and loaded it with bullets, "But something about the worlds Sylvarant and Tethe'alla seems some what a mystery to me. I think it's a Mystery because it has something about my own kinds history here."

"Your Mana Carrier history I do so believe." Shego then reached into the trunk to get a Shotgun and shells to go with it. "I'm ready Matz…"

"Me too, let's get going." Max said as he and Shego marched into the tall grass carefully. "Notice anything Shego?" the Medic asked.

"Nothing yet Human…"

After taking a few more steps, Max started to notice something about Shego, "You know? I'm starting to notice that you're really are use to humans, like as if you don't mind if they're around you."

"It's strange for me too human, I am really use to you humans already." They kept walking in silence till Shego stopped walking. "Actually… I have encountered some humans back on Earth, but the humans I've found… made me feel different inside… and it took away my ability to kill them. Like they were different from any other Human I've fought and killed."

Max looked at Shego and then over to the tall grass area that they were surrounded in, "I'm no physician, but I think what you felt was probably guilt, kindness, sadness, and maybe loneliness."

The Elite gazed at Max, "Are those what you humans call feelings?"

"Yep, and what you told me, you must have encountered feelings without noticing."

"That's ridicules… Elites don't have feelings on the battlefield…" Shego responded.

"Are you really sure about that?" Max said making everything in the conversation quiet again.

"Matz…" Shego began, "If you see me encounter this feelings, would you or one of the others tell me?"

Max was surprised hearing something like this from an Elite, all he could do is show a friendly smile, "Sure thing Shego, you got my word."

"Thank you Matz…" Right after saying that, Shego picked something up on his motion sensor, "Human, I believe there something's in the grass."

"Really?" and out of the blue, and white rabbit the size of a football, and with blue eyes poked its head out of the tall grass. It stared at them curiously, "It's just a little cute rabbit, nothing special…"

"Matz…" Shego said seriously as more rabbits poked their head out of the grass and stared at them.

"Shit man… there must be a colony of them or something…" Suddenly the army of rabbit's eyes turned red and even more heads popped out. "………………… Oh shit… I think I know where this is going…"

At the same time, Max and Shego took a few steps back before spinning around and started going into a full sprint towards the warthog.

"OK! Time to get back to the jeep!" Max yelled.

"Human, don't your human vehicles use something called "fuel" to start moving? Aren't we low on fuel?" Shego said as he shot a few rounds from the shotgun.

"From what I heard Shego, the warthog is like the Energizer Bunny! It keeps going and going!" Max then kicked a red-eyed rabbit that tried going for his feet.

Before they could even take another step, dozens of more hostile rabbits popped out of grass cutting them off from getting to the warthog. Shego then looked over at Max, "Matz, if we survive this, will you tell me what is an Energizer Bunny?"

Max let out a sigh, "Wow… there are a lot of things you Elites showed know after all the saving the galaxy stuff is over."

A.N. sorry for a long wait folks. I've been really busy with stuff. My excuse is that I had Japanese language classes and had to go to a two week art camp where there wasn't much computer time. I'll get the next ch. for this story as soon as possible!


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